🇨🇺 Caribbean wave

After a decade focused on the Venezuelan migrant crisis, Brazil’s immigration policy is now facing calls for an update, as since 2025, Cubans, not Venezuelans, have become the largest group of asylum seekers in Brazil.

There were nearly 42,000 such asylum requests last year — after President Donald Trump and his anti-immigration policy returned to the White House, forcing Cubans to seek alternative destinations beyond the traditional route to Florida.

Brazil’s position as Latin America’s only Portuguese-speaking country has always been a major constraint on migration flows from neighboring nations, Cuba included. But Brazilian law, favorable to migrants’ human rights, has made the country an attractive option — as have the networks of Cubans that have established themselves in the country since the 1990s. 

This new wave is particularly notable due to the profile of migrants arriving in Brazil, where in the country they are heading, how long they are staying, and even the human trafficking structures involved in some of the arrivals. And immigration is likely to grow even further this year, given the worsening energy and economic crisis on the Caribbean island…

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