Leitura psicossocial da inserção dos refugiados colombianos em Manaus

Abstract

According to statistical data provided by the UN Refugee Agency, in 2013 there were about 16.7 million refugees around the world. The countries of South America together have a less number of refugees than other countries of Middlle East and Asia. Among the countries in South America, Brazil is the most required country by refugees, mainly South American refugees, due to its admissions policy, that has facilitated their entry access. The refuge request in Brazil was facilitated after the approval of the Law Number 9.474 / 97, which defines implementation mechanisms of the refugees statute created in 1951. However, this law does not set questions about their social insertion in Brazil, causing social problems upon the arrival of these groups in some place. View of this situation, this study aimed to conduct a psychosocial reading of the inserting process of Colombian refugee families in Manaus. It is a qualitative research with an exploratory and descriptive character, using semi-structured interviews with members of four families that requested refuge between January2013 and September2014,residents in Manaus, and was used the content analysis according to Bardin (2011). In this research it was used as a theoretical support the theory of social identity Tjafel and cultural identity Hall.The results showed that the refugees come from the cities of Cúcuta, Caicedonia and Villavicencio and that all of them requested refuge because of threats suffered, insecurity and violence that exists in their hometowns. The refugees claim two basic reasons to choose Brazil, which were safety and the existence of acquaintances. As for the choice of Manaus were the reasons: existence of aquaintances in the city and the nature. About the facilitation process of social insertion of other refugees in the city of Manaus, all families assigned to the reception as the main factor to help in the social integration. The aspects that made life easier for refugees in Brazil, could be listed three answers: the study of children, the reception and work. On the other hand, making life more difficult were the language, marital problems, work and housing. The understanding of refuge for the families was diverse, like be a homeless, come hidden, have facilitated access and have rights. Regarding the Colombian identity, all expressed the pride of being Colombian, but without specifying what characteristics determine its identity. On the Brazilian identity, all respondents designated the Brazilian as an individual of positive procedures, having one of respondents said they would like to be Brazilian. It was presented in this research the deconstruction of the concept of the refugees as the ones that left their country to occupy lower -skilled jobs in Manaus, since they already held such jobs in Colombia. It is concluded that the development of public policies is necessary in order to protect the rights of these groups, invisible to Manauara society. Finally, it lifted up the need for more research on the subject, given the scarcity of existing investigations.