‘There is no family here’: refugees’ strategies for family reunification in São Paulo

Research on family reunification policies in the Global South is scarce, despite the fact that forced migratory movements are larger in the South than in the Global North. Brazil legally recognizes the right to family reunification for all migrants. Although the country has adopted a broad definition of family that recognizes relatives from the extended family, financial limitations require refugees to make choices about which family members to bring first. This chapter analyses their selection strategies based on 20 phenomenological, semi-structured interviews conducted with refugees mainly from Africa, in particular from the Democratic Republic of Congo, who applied for family reunification in São Paulo. I also employ quantitative data on refugees who applied for family reunification in Brazil between 2015 and 2018. Refugee narratives reveal five overlapping strategies used to select which family members to bring first. These strategies address the needs of family members both in the country of origin and in Brazil, namely, protection, health, finances, childcare and securing the future of the family. Hence, refugees in Brazil select family members for reunification not only because of close kinship ties, but also to improve everyday security.