Growing up as children of Brazilians immigrants in the United States of America

Abstract

The theme of this article is the children of Brazilians immigrants in the context of the “new second generation” of immigrants in the USA today. Based mainly on a set of in-depth interviews conducted with the children of Brazilians immigrants, the article reflects the analysis of this empirical material from the dialogue with studies that deal with the more general reality of the children of immigrants in the contemporary United States. Notably the studies of Alejandro Portes and Ruben Rumbaut and Marcelo and Carola Suárez-Orozco. The analyzes and dialogues carried out are developed around three important issues in the trajectory of the children of Brazilians immigrants in the United States: the social and life trajectory of these children of immigrants; their school experiences in the USA; and the places and roles of their parents in their experiences of growing up as children of Brazilians immigrants in the United States of America. At the conclusion, the article proposes that: (1) being "children of immigrants” in the USA today is an important social space from which many children lives their childhood within this society; (2) this is a social space whose characteristics provide to these children forms of agency of their social lives that are precisely linked to the condition of being “children of immigrants”.