"Soap Opera Lures Brazilians to United States," by Andrew Hay - Reuters (Brasilia), 25 Aug 2005
Brazilians are illegally entering the United States in record numbers in hopes of finding jobs and better lives -- just like characters in a wildly popular Brazilian soap opera "America."
The number of undocumented Brazilians caught on U.S. soil is set to rise over four fold this year from 2004 -- a much bigger increase than for illegal immigrants from other Latin American countries, according to U.S. officials.
As authorities search for factors spurring the exodus, they have begun to look at the passion of Brazil's poor for "America," a soap opera that debuted in early March and shows illegal immigrants risking their lives to enter the United States to find jobs and romance amid the hardship.
"Any publicity raises the idea in people's minds they can make it," said one U.S. diplomat who did not want to be identified....
Brazilians in the past few months have become the second-largest group of illegal immigrants detained in the United States after Mexicans -- overtaking Hondurans -- as up to a third of residents in some poor Brazilian towns seek work abroad. Teen-agers as young as 15 are making the trip.
Driving poor Brazilians are dreams they can find hope, money and glamour they lack at home.
Brazil's economy is growing but unemployment is still near 10 percent. Nearly half the population lives in poverty and fights for a limited number of jobs that pay a minimum monthly wage of $128 that is difficult to live on....
[I]n the soap, as in real life, [Brazilian who go to the US] get jobs as maids and construction workers that pay in a couple of days what they get during a month in Brazil.
The 1.3 million Brazilians in the United States -- half of them illegal -- send around $2 billion back home each year. Those that return home with money inspire thousands more to follow in their footsteps.
Stories of Brazilians found drowned in the Rio Grande or dead in the desert don't even make it to newspapers....
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