Until April this year, Brazil received 1,938 refugee applications, but only 680 were accepted. Most of them, 532, were submitted by Syrians, who make up the largest foreign refugee community in Brazil, with just over 1,200 people.
Then come the Colombians, the Angolans, and the Lebanese. Haitians do not count into these statistics because they are entitled to special humanitarian visas, which grant them refuge upon simple proof of nationality.
The number of asylum applications in Brazil has increased exponentially over the years, going from 566 in 2010 to 5,256 last year. However, the number of successful applications is still considered low.
Federal Immigration Services Ombudsman Aurélio Rios explained that the National Council for Refugees (CONARE) is the authority responsible for considering applications.
“We need to improve our procedures in order to become faster and more liberal in granting the requests,” he said.
Rios mentions such issues as missing documents and proof of refugee status among the causes for the low successful application rate. He credits refugees’ interest in Brazil to the country’s rising international prominence in recent years.
“Brazil has been playing an important role,” says Andrés Ramirez, a representative for the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR). He said the demand coming from refugees shows that the country is not indifferent to global crisis and has been a major global player.
According to the 1951 Convention on the Status of Refugees to which Brazil is a signing party, a refugee is someone who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country”.
As an attempt to mitigate difficulties relating to immigration, the Ministry of Justice is planning to submit a proposal for a new statute on immigration, which should be drafted into a bill of law in Congress.
One key feature of the proposal is the creation of a central authority on immigration in the country for the aim of reducing the amount of red tape and thus handling immigrant demands more quickly, including refugee applications.
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There were those who opened their doors in the late 19th century, others in the early 20th century and others half way through it. From then on, the economy of Brazil has grown, the dollar has oscillated, imported products arrived, as did foreigners and capital and large retail chains.
But they are still there, their doors open, in the hands of the same families, selling needles, embroidery, carpets, fabric, bedclothes. Shops on 25 de Março street, in downtown São Paulo, like Armarinho Ambar, established by Arab immigrants, many during the immigration period, remain in activity to date.
“We started with a dry goods store and up to now we develop the same work. Clients know the shop they are entering, our price policy, and they come in confidently, they know we do not oscillate, that we do not change address, skip from branch to branch,” said one of the owners of Armarinho Ambar, Elias Ambar, explaining why the shop has remained on 25 de Março for almost 60 years.
Armarinho Ambar was established by the Lebanese Georges Ambar, in 1953. It was initially established in the vicinity and moved to 25 de Março, where it is to date, in the 1960s.
Elias said that over the years he has seen some of the shops on 25 de Março street, originally in Arab hands, change owners. “People change their focus, as they are already established, they see other opportunities, abandon trade activities or the second generation goes elsewhere,” he explained.
According to the vice president of the São Paulo Trade Association, Roberto Mateus Ordine, trade on 25 de março, however, is still in the hands of Arabs. He compares it to other streets or commercial neighborhoods, like Bom Retiro, whose shops were mainly in Jewish hands, but are now mostly owned by Asians, and says that at 25 de Março Street, this phenomenon was much smaller.
To Ordine, two factors caused the Arabs to remain well established at their shops on 25 de Março and the surrounding areas. “First of all due to the points of sale opened in the region, which are very favorable. The second reason is for the tradition the Arabs have in trade. The area shows itself appropriate for business. Different from industry, which has to seek clients, 25 de Março street is where clients seek us,” he said.
According to him, the Asians that bought shops in the region mainly took advantage of the space left by the Northerners, who were also among the first retailers to get there.
Despite such natural Arab talent for trade, Ordine said that he has seen families of immigrants modernize over the years. Typewriters, ancient cash registers, they were all left in the past, according to him.
In fact, at Armarinho Ambar, João, Roberto and Elias, the three sons of the original founder, who are currently running the business, are graduated – Elias, in business administration. But the shop is no longer the main channel of sales, and Ambar has a site for online sales. Being informed about fashion tendencies is another rule that the shop makes a point of following.
According to Elias, the arrival of new businessmen in the street, Chinese, Indian and Koreans, made the trade that was already established seek modernization. “Every time a Chinese or Korean tradesman arrives and sets up a shop, with new decoration, everything new, bringing new products, the others are forced to seek change. With that, 25 de Março street and the surrounding region have been revitalized, both in terms of façades, appearance of shops and also in diversification of products and agility in offering new business,” said Elias.
But does the old Arab style of trading remain among the sons and grandsons of immigrants? According to Elias, he and his brothers speak, like their father did, a typical characteristic: the good principles.
“In the past there was much direct contact, and the contact with producers was more direct, easier. There is currently certain distance,” he said.
Currently, the second generation of the family is in charge of Armarinho Ambar, but one member of the third generation, Georges, is already also working. Both Armarinhos Ambar shops employ 70 people.
Anba
]]>It was in this environment that on November 28, 1921, a Lebanese woman who lived in the capital of São Paulo, Adma Jafet, invited her friends to a meeting at her house, in Paraíso neighborhood.
It was not, however, just for tea. Adma, who arrived in Brazil at the age of 15, had a proposal: the construction of a hospital.
Her friends liked the idea and on that same day they donated money. A little later, the group of 27 members of the Syrian-Lebanese community, all women, had established the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital’s Women’s Beneficent Society.
After various beneficent tea parties, having called on their husbands and friends to participate in the task and, mainly, through much dedication, in 1965 they opened the Syrian-Lebanese hospital, currently a reference in hospital services in Brazil.
"My mother was very intelligent, she was one hundred years ahead of her times," stated Violeta Jafet, Adma’s daughter and current president of the Women’s Beneficent Society.
Violeta, together with a group of women who integrated the group, participated Thursday, March 16, in a ceremony honoring the late Adma and her husband, Basílio Jafet, at the Research and Education Institute at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital.
A plate in honor of the couple was inaugurated, as was another in honor of gynecologist Pedro Camasnie, aged 92, the oldest doctor at the Hospital, and one of the members of the first clinical and administrative staff at the institution.
Both honors are part of the beginning of commemorations of the 85 years of the Society. A sticky stamp celebrating the date was also inaugurated, and it will be used on hospital correspondence, internal publications, on their intranet and on medical reports.
The stamp shows the symbol of the hospital, which is a figure of a nurse beside a radiant cross and was inspired on a logo created by Adma Jafet for the Beneficent Society. Up to November 28 this year, there will be a series of similar initiatives marking the commemoration.
Celebration
According to the superintendent of the health institution, Maurício Ceschin, at the end of this month a new version of the Hospital’s web site should go on air, in Portuguese, Spanish, English and Arabic.
A book about the 85 years of the founding of the Beneficent Society will also be published. Currently, the institution’s site has a version in English and Portuguese. A new memorial will also be inaugurated at the hospital’s Education and Research Institute. There is currently a memorial, but it is in the hospital itself.
The Muslim Beneficent Society still runs the hospital, which currently covers an area of 54,000 square meters, is specialized in 40 areas, has 300 beds and 2,700 employees.
The institution counts on 1,200 doctors and, according to Ceschin, they treat around 5,000 patients a month. The Syrian-Lebanese Hospital is renowned mainly due to its work with high complexity patients, in areas like oncology, cardiology and neurology.
Health for All
One of the activities developed, of which the group of women who are founding members are proud, is philanthropy. The Beneficent Society runs, for example, the Social Pediatrics Ward, which treats around 800 poor children per month in the Bela Vista neighborhood, where the Hospital is installed.
It was established seven years ago. It also offers residents in the neighborhood professional training, cultural and sports activities at a building beside the hospital, as part of project "Abrace seu Bairro" (Embrace Your Neighborhood).
"We managed to make real a great ideal, helping poor children who have no means for treatment. I would do it all again," stated Violeta Jafet yesterday. The descendent of Lebanese was already ahead of the Beneficent Society when the Hospital was inaugurated, in 1965, as her mother, Adma, passed away before that, in 1956.
"The continuation of this work has my grandmother’s hand and heart in it," stated Violeta’s grandson, Basílio Jafet Neto, who spoke in the name of his grandmother, at the ceremony. Violeta is already 98 years old.
Apart from the work developed by the Jafet family for the development of the Hospital, the ceremony also honored the services by doctor Pedro Camasmie to the institution. Camasmie, who is also of Lebanese descent, was born in São Paulo, in 1913, and graduated in medicine at the University of São Paulo (USP).
He has been working for the hospital for 41 years and despite his old age still acts at the organization. Camasmie also helped establish the Syrian Asylum in Campos do Jordão, in the interior of the state of São Paulo.
"His life is strongly connected to what characterizes the Hospital: philanthropy," stated the director of the clinical department at the Hospital, Dário Birolini, at the ceremony.
Anba – www.anba.com.br
]]>Ever since it’s inauguration in 1991, the Emporium São Paulo supermarket chain, founded by two Arab descendants, can only commemorate. Turned mainly to customers of the A and B class, the company opened its first store in the Moema neighborhood, in the city of São Paulo, Brazil.
They had just 12 employees. The chain currently includes 4 stores and 430 employees. Annual revenues grew 5% in 2004, when compared to the previous year, and 12% in 2003. For 2005, the forecast is growth of 10%.
Despite being small, Emporium does not stand behind large retail stores. The around 8,000 people who visit the stores every day each spend around US$ 11 per purchase.
In the Pão de Açúcar supermarket chain, for example, which belongs to the Brazilian Distribution Company, the largest chain in the country, the average purchase is for around US$ 8.50, according to a financial report published by the company.
“Different from what happens at larger chains, where the owners are far from the stores, we can provide services directly to our customers,” stated Juliano Hannud, one of the owners of Emporium.
He and his partner, Marcos Maluf, try to solve the problems of each customer and hear their opinions about the supermarket.
Arab Culture
“At our stores, we have preserved an important trace of the Arab culture, receiving people well and making them feel happy at our home. In the same way, we try to receive our customers at our establishment in the same way,” stated Hannud, whose grandparents were born in Syria. Maluf, in turn, is a Lebanese descendant.
Sons of tradesmen in the garment sector, the partners who own Emporium also guarantee that they inherited the business ability of the Arabs.
As an example, they mention the purchase of the new counters for the bakery sector at one of their stores.
“We managed to pay in ten instalments, a form of payment that the supplier does not give anyone else,” explained Hannud.
On the shelves at the stores it is also possible to find ingredients that are typical of Arab cuisine, such as tahini and halawi.
In addition to these items, you can add frozen kibbehs and sfihas, as well as fruit like nuts, dates and apricots. The presence of these products may be justified.
At their branch in Vila Nova Conceição, a noble neighborhood in the southern zone of the city of São Paulo, of every ten customers that enter the store, three are of Arab origin.
For this year, the partners already have plans. Two of their stores will have their sales area increased. The one on Jurema Avenue, in Moema, will grow from 1,000 square meters to 1,600 square meters.
In the case of the store in Vila Nova Conceição, it will grow to double the current 880 square meters.
Emporium São Paulo
Tel: (+55 11) 5052-7558
jurema@emporiumsaopaulo.com.br
www.emporiumsaopaulo.com.br
ANBA ”“ Brazil-Arab News Agency
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