Race and public policy in Brazil: Immigration, Sao Paulo and the First Republic

Abstract

This paper investigates the absence of racial public policy in Brazil during the First Republic. Using secondary sources, this paper looks at economic competition and conflict between black and immigrant labor in the state of Sao Paulo and tests the applicability of the split labor market theory of ethnic antagonism--a theory used in explaining the development of ethnic conflict into racial public policy. Such conflict has been a primary factor in the development of racial public policies such as those found in the United States and South Africa. The political organization of black Brazilians and immigrant (primary Italian) groups is also analyzed to discover whether or not these groups would have been capable of translating their economic goals into race-based public policy. The thesis suggests that there was little competition in many areas, and that even where there was little competition, neither group had sufficient political capacity to successfully push for exclusionary public policies based on race.