Access by immigrants to social assistance policy services in international border region municipality

Abstract

: The objective was to analyze aspects of immigration and social benefits requested and received by immigrants residing in Foz do Iguaçu/PR. The research comprised two moments, one with a quantitative approach, developed from data from publicly accessible banks and information provided by the Secretariat of Social Assistance and Reference Centers for Social Assistance (CRAS) acronym in Brazilian Portuguese of the aforementioned municipality, another with a qualitative approach, which consisted of field research with interviews with immigrant users of CRAS. Quantitative data were subjected to simple descriptive statistical analysis and subjective data to dialogic thematic analysis. The critical perspective, guided by historical-dialectical materialism, constituted the analysis framework. The results revealed immigrants from 57 different ethnic groups registered in CadÚnico (register of information on Brazilian families in situations of poverty and extreme poverty), with more Paraguayans, Venezuelans, Argentines, Colombians and Haitians. Immigration was essentially due to economic, social and political problems in the case of Venezuelans, work in the case of Paraguayans, natural disasters and studies by Haitians and family choice in the case of Argentines. In general, these immigrants develop work activities inferior to the training acquired in the country of origin; recognize the existence of prejudice in institutions and public services; they were welcomed by a support network made up of immigrants of the same nationality and religious institutions. It is concluded that the immigrant population must be the object of the municipal social assistance policy, with improvement of the records that allow identifying the demand and the services effectively used by this public.