Institutional Racism

Over the last few years undocumented African and afro-Caribbean migrants have begun to form a new diaspora in Brazil—the country with the largest concentration of Afro-descendants outside of Africa and falsely referred to as a “racial democracy”. Provided with this new phenomenon this study investigates if traces of traditional institutional racial discrimination can be found in the Brazilian institutional conduct vis-à-vis undocumented black immigrants today. By means of an empirical analysis in two Brazilian cities—Brasiléia (AC) and Manaus (AM) the objetive is thus to provide some relevant insights into Brazilian racial relations and add to the growing body of research on institutional racism. This study should interest social scientists who take an interest in racial relations as well as migration studies and may wish to look beyond the cases of Europe and the United States.