Overview

An ethnography of the difficult experiences of refugees in Brazil.   In 2013, as Syrians desperate to escape a brutal war fled the country, Brazil took the remarkable step of instituting an open-door policy for all Syrian refugees. Why did Brazil—in contrast to much of the international community—offer asylum to any Syrian who would come? And how do Syrians differ from other refugee populations seeking status in Brazil?   In The Color of Asylum, Katherine Jensen offers an ethnographic look at the process of asylum seeking in Brazil, uncovering the different ways asylum seekers are treated and the racial logic behind their treatment. She focuses on two of the largest and most successful groups of asylum seekers: Syrian and Congolese refugees. While the groups obtain asylum status in Brazil at roughly equivalent rates, their journey to that status could not be more different, with Congolese refugees enduring significantly greater difficulties at each stage, from arrival through to their treatment by Brazilian officials. As Jensen shows, Syrians, meanwhile, receive better treatment because the Brazilian state recognizes them as white, in a nation that has historically privileged white immigration. Ultimately, however, Jensen reaches an unexpected conclusion: Regardless of their country of origin, even migrants who do secure asylum status find their lives remain extremely difficult, marked by struggle and discrimination.  

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9780226828442

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Reviews

“Brazil’s high rate of granting asylum to Syrians and Congolese superficially suggests that a racial democracy is protecting refugees. Jensen’s ethnographic deep dive shows that underneath the surface of simple statistics and public pronouncements, the asylum process is saturated with racial inequalities.”  -- David Scott FitzGerald, coauthor of The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach “The Color of Asylum follows Syrian and Congolese escapees from their countries’ wars to incisively describe how Brazil’s asylum system differentially treats the two groups. This is the latest chapter in Brazil’s long, fascinating, and racialized immigration history.”  -- Edward Telles, University of California, Irvine “Grounded on an impressive array of archival data, legal materials, and the keenest of ethnographies, The Color of Asylum renders accessible the complexities of the asylum bureaucracy and is a critical contribution and a must-read.”   -- Cecilia Menjívar, University of California, Los Angeles “With clarity and ethnographic rigor, The Color of Asylum documents how Brazil’s seemingly open asylum policy follows the historical racial project of the nation-state. I highly recommend this book to readers interested in race matters in Latin America as well as to race scholars in general.”  -- Eduardo Bonilla-Silva, Duke University

"""Brazil’s high rate of granting asylum to Syrians and Congolese superficially suggests that a racial democracy is protecting refugees. Jensen’s ethnographic deep dive shows that underneath the surface of simple statistics and public pronouncements, the asylum process is saturated with racial inequalities."" * David Scott FitzGerald, co-author of The Refugee System: A Sociological Approach (Polity 2023) *"

Author Information

Katherine Jensen is assistant professor of sociology and international studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.   

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