Bolivian immigrants in São Paulo tend to work from 6am to 11pm, and make between R$200 and R$400 ($70 to $140 US dollars) per month. They live in a cubicle in their workplace. These are small rooms, 2.00m x 1.50m, which house the worker, their family, the sewing machines, and a space to put the clothes they produce. A mattress is rolled up during the day, then at night, when they go to sleep, it become their beds. The finished clothes are normally delivered to Koreans who own cheap clothing stores.

Enslaved Bolivian Immigrants in São Paulo

Evanize Sydow*

The waiting room at the Centro Pastoral dos Latinos (Latino Immigrant Center), in São Paulo, is always full, from Monday to Friday. Most of them are undocumented immigrants from Bolivia. They work under precarious conditions in sweatshops in the neighborhoods of Belém, Brás, Vila Maria, Bom Retiro, Mooca and Pari. The immigration lawyer, Ruth Miriam Camacho Kadluba, attends approximately 30 of them per day.
According to the Center, there are between 30 and 50 thousand undocumented Bolivians in São Paulo. Many of them prefer to remain undocumented because of the high costs of the legal process.

The Bolivian workers came to Brazil for the same reason. They are trying to make a little more money, since work in Bolivia is extremely scarce and there are no opportunities for those who can't attend a university (most Bolivians in Brazil used to starve in their country). They also explain that their goal is not to make money they can save, but to have a slightly better life. Many learned to sew here, with the sweatshop's owner; others worked in the industry in Bolivia, under very bad conditions. They say that, if they could ask one thing from the Brazilian government, it would be to facilitate the conditions for them to work legally in the country. Most of them say that working conditions, despite everything, are still better in Brazil than in Bolivia. Not all of them know of cases of slave labor, and don't view themselves as slave laborers.

The Bolivians tend to work from 6am to 11pm or from 7am to 12am and make between R$200 and R$400 ($70 to $140 US dollars) per month. The live in a cubicle in their workplace. These are small rooms, 2.00m x 1.50m, which house the worker, their family, their sewing machines, and a space to put the clothes they produce. A mattress is rolled up during the day, then at night, when they go to sleep, it become their beds. The finished clothes are normally delivered to Koreans who own cheap clothing stores.

The shop owners keep the Bolivian workers from leaving with a system of debts. Many people work for free until their debts are paid. If they make a mistake on a piece of clothing, they have to pay what the owner would have received had he sold it to the Koreans. During a good run, they sew between 200 and 250 pieces a day. Lately, they make an average of 80 pieces a day, receiving R$0.10 per piece - they should receive R$0.20, but the difference covers food and housing.

According to the Bolivians and the Immigrant Center, in order for this situation to change it is necessary to legalize those who are undocumented. In addition, the government needs to monitor the clandestine clothing factories. Today, legalization is possible in the following cases:
- when the Bolivian has a child born in Brazil;
- when they marry a Brazilian;
- in the case of family ties, such as when a Bolivian who obtains documents through amnesty can also obtain them for their spouse, children, or parents;
- amnesty (when it is open to everyone, the last happened in 1998);
- legalization (Free Movement in Mercosul). In this case, the cost is very high: R$53.80 to file the petition; at the Federal Police they receive a fine of R$848.00 which, if not paid, the immigrant will not be able to return to the country. Some lawyers charge R$1,500.00 to fill out the paperwork and, despite their promises, do not pay off the fine. Without knowing this, many people can't return to Brazil after visiting Bolivia.

The majority of the Bolivians come from cities such as La Paz, Sucre, Santa Cruz de la Sierra, and Cochabamba. Usually they enter Brazil through Cuiabá, in Mato Grosso, or San Mathias, in Bolivia, which borders Caceres, Mato Grosso and Corumbá, in Mato Grosso do Sul.

The food is very poor in the factories. Rice, potatoes, salad and sausage are usually on the menu. The workers rarely eat meat or eggs. The food is extremely inadequate for someone who works more than 17 hours a day. As a result, one of the workers explains that she wakes up the next day with no energy for another shift. In addition, children do not get proper nutrition and the parents are the ones who have to buy milk, vegetables and fruit. The workers get one-hour breaks for lunch and dinner and 15 minutes for breakfast.
One of the women says that she has not been paid in two months. She has a young daughter who is forced to stay locked up in a room all day. According to Father Roque Renato Pattussi, from the Latino Immigrant Center, the Bolivians rarely go out for fear of being arrested by the police.

In Bolivia, roughly 50% of the economically active population works in the informal market. Beside the problem of unemployment, there is also a lack of housing and public services, such as health and education.

In Brazil the destination of cheap Bolivian labor is, generally, small factories controlled by Koreans. The Bolivia Foundation estimates that there are approximately 100 thousand Bolivians in São Paulo (September 1992). The largest concentration of Bolivians is in the city of São Paulo, followed by Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, and Corumbá. Most people who work illegally in the clothing business in São Paulo are young, between 15 and 35 years old, with a medium level of education for men and a lower level for women. Most of them have little knowledge of Portuguese. The sector that uses most illegal workers are the sweatshops, with 40% of the total, while the rest is spread between factory workers, maids, street vendors, construction workers and carpenters. The average salary for the textile workers is between 50 and 200 dollars a month.

The lack of legal documents is one of the biggest difficulties faced by the Bolivians. Their worse nightmare is to be approached by the Federal Police and sent out of the country. The feeling of insecurity in which most live is a result of, on one hand, the lack of legal documents and, on the other hand, the strategy used by the owners of the sweatshops, who frighten them by saying that the police could approach them at any time on the streets or threaten to turn them in if they decide to change jobs.

*Evanize Sydow is a journalist at the Social Network for Justice and Human Rights and participated as a researcher for a survey made by the International Labor Organization to create a database about slave labor in Brazil.