From Brazil to America: Understanding the Migration Drivers

 The vibe with Brazilians is like always calling the nikkejin "japonês" and it's lowkey making them feel connected to their Japanese fam and roots. 

 Like, it's like, totally how mainstream Brazilians are all like, "Yo, you're Japanese, bro!" and they're like, "Nah, man, I'm a Brazilian nikkeijin!" Yo, like, honestly, not many Japanese-Brazilians, no matter how they vibe, can avoid being hella aware of their Japanese looks that society puts on 'em. Like, some of them are like, "Yo, I gotta be seen as 'japonês' by other Brazilians just 'cause of how I look, you know?"In a highly diverse and inclusive society where the concept of a "majority group" is hazy and ambiguous, it appears that being socioculturally blended will help Japanese-Brazilians fit in with the overall Brazilian vibe, even if they are perceived as different races. However, in the following section, the majority of them do not intend to abandon their minority ethnicity in favor of a Brazilian national identity, ya know? Actually, their "Japaneseness" is more of an asset to keep than a cringe-worthy ethnic trait to avoid.

"Like, because of our faces, we can't even front that we're japonês, even if we wanted to," a middle-aged nisei woman was like, "for real." "We're totally reminded of this every time we flex on the streets, ya know?" Others were like, yo, their racial visibility is, like, totally obvious and can't be changed, which makes them stand out as a unique "Japanese" ethnic minority, even if their cultural differences with most Brazilians fade away and disappear because of assimilation (check out Reichl 1995:47 too). There's like, no cap to dodge this," a young Japanese-Brazilian student said, with a vibe of resignation in his voice. "We can like totally hit up a soccer game and hype up our fave São Paulo team, or even bust some sick samba moves in the streets, and like outta nowhere, someone gonna be like, 'Yo, japonês!'"When I first met Fábio [a Japanese-Brazilian sansei], I was like, "OMG, this dude is gonna be all Japanese and stuff." However, he did not fit the vibe. I eventually realized he's Brazilian--the way he speaks, the way he greets you, and his mad open hospitality. If it weren't for his appearance, I would believe he was a genuine Brazilian. Fr, I don't really see him as Japanese anymore. His appearance isn't as important anymore, you know?

Like, yo, the Japanese-Brazilians totally feel their "Japaneseness" as, like, a super deep ethnic vibe that's, like, in their DNA and can't be denied or changed, you know?

In a society where minority identities are like totally essentialized by their racial vibes, they like can't even be actively challenged, resisted, and changed (cf. Mason 1986:6) unlike culturally constructed ethnic identities which can be like constantly negotiated.Among Japanese-Brazilians of mixed descent (mestiços), race is much more flexible and can be completely manipulated, making their "Japanese" ethnicity less set in stone, y'know? Despite their wild racial vibes, it appears that even they are occasionally unable to flex out of the primal nature of their ethnicity in Brazilian society. Like, a lot of my mestiço homies were casually labeled as "japonês" by their peers and in public because they still had that "Japanese" appearance, you know? As we'll discuss later, none of my mestiço friends were even attempting to fight against the overall vibe of these hegemonic racial constructs. Instead, they were completely on board, if not subtly promoting their racial classification as "japonês" in Brazilian society. OMG, minority identities always imply marginalization, ya know? And it's completely unacceptable that Brazilians continue to refer to Japanese-Brazilians as "japonês" based solely on their appearance. It's as if they're completely excluding them based on their race, whether they know it or not. SMH. Many Brazilian nikkeijin prefer to be referred to as "japonês" due to their appearance, but some prefer to blend in as regular Brazilians and avoid being labeled as a minority. However, there were indications that Brazilians who identify with culturally assimilated Japanese-Brazilians could eventually see beyond the racial surface and stop calling them "Japanese," ya know? Check out these comments by a Brazilian girl:

The Japanese-Brazilians' postwar socioeconomic flex is one reason for their social clout as a nominal "Japanese" minority in Brazil. 

OMG, despite starting out as contract workers on Brazilian plantations, they completely dominated agriculture. They established extremely successful agricultural cooperatives and introduced all of these cool fruits and vegetables into the standard Brazilian diet. Check out Andô 1973, Saito 1973, 1976, 1978:21-27, and Utsumi 1986 for more information. Since moving to the city, they've had a massive social upswing (see Maeyama 1983, 1989, Miyao 1980, Saito 1961:131-157, 1976:189-192), and they now boast a solid middle class status that is far above the Brazilian average. A survey conducted by the São Paulo Humanities Research Center in 1987-1988 found that 43.3 percent of Brazilian nikkeijin work as professionals, managers, or office workers, while 20.9 percent run their own businesses. OMG, most people are making a lot of money—way above the Brazilian average. #ballin'4 OMG, some of my friends have even stated that Brazilians think Japanese-Brazilians are lowkey loaded. Marriage with a nikkeijin man is practically guaranteed in Brazilian society, you know? It's like being financially secure and all that jazz. The Japanese-Brazilians' educational flex is getting a lot of attention. Approximately 20% are university educated (Centro de Estudos 1992), which is more than three times the Brazilian average. According to Maeyama (1983:69), Miyao (1980), Saito (1978:206-7), and Smith (1979:64), Asian students in the United States are showing off at top Brazilian universities, including the prestigious Universidade de São Paulo. The most popular joke in Brazil about Japanese-Brazilians is: "If you wanna get into the University of São Paulo, slay a Japanese."