:White Brazilians

{{Main|Race and ethnicity in Brazil}}

File:Brazilpop.svg in 2017]]

File:Dutch Folklore Dance Group in Holambra, Brazil.jpg descendants in Holambra]]

File:20ª Festa do Imigrante (18847942238).jpg

File:22ª Festa do Imigrante (35123966735).jpg

The conception of "white" in Brazil is similar to other Latin American countries yet different to the United States, where historically only people of entirely or (almost entirely) European ancestry have been considered white, due to the one drop rule. In Brazil and in Latin America in general, this conception does not exist. A 2000 survey conducted in Rio de Janeiro concluded that "racial-purity" is not important for a person to be classified as white in Brazil. The survey asked respondents if they had any ancestors who were European, African or Amerindian. As much as 52% of those whites reported they have some non-European ancestry: 25% reported to have some African ancestry and 14% reported Amerindian ancestry (15% of them reported to have both). Only 48% of those whites did not report any non-European ancestry. Thus, in Brazil, one can self-identify as "white" and still have African or Amerindian ancestry, and such a person has no problem admitting to having non-European ancestors.

In colonial Brazil, the formation of a white population of exclusive European ancestry was not very common. In the first centuries of colonization, almost only Portuguese men immigrated to Brazil, since Portuguese women were often prevented from migrating. Given such gender imbalance, Portuguese male settlers often had relationships with Amerindian or African women, which led to an extremely mixed population.

At the end of the 19th century, when eugenic ideas arrived in Brazil, a severe racial segregation, similar to that of the United States or South Africa, that separated "whites" from "non-whites", was regarded as impractical in Brazil, since this would even exclude many members of the Brazilian elite. Thus, in Brazil, racial classifications are more flexible and based primarily on a person's physical characteristics, such as skin color, hair type and other physical traits, tending to identify as "white" a person with lighter skin color.

In Brazil, social prejudice connected to certain details in the physical appearance of individual is widespread. Those details are related to the concept of "cor". "Cor", Portuguese for "color", denotes the Brazilian rough equivalent of the term "race" in English, but is based on a complex phenotypic evaluation that takes into account skin pigmentation, hair type, nose shape, and lip shape. This concept, unlike the English notion of "race", captures the continuous aspects of phenotypes. Thus, it seems there is no racial descent rule operational in Brazil; it is even possible for two siblings to belong to completely diverse "racial" categories.{{cite journal |pmc=140919|pmid=12509516 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0126614100|volume=100|issue=1|title=Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians|date=January 2003|pages=177–82|last1=Parra|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|bibcode=2003PNAS..100..177P|doi-access=free }} Second paragraph

An important factor about whiteness in Brazil is the racial stigma of being Amerindian or Black, which is undesirable and avoided for a large part of the population.{{Cite web |url=https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/a-raca-indesejavel/ |title=The undesirable race |access-date=24 September 2022 |archive-date=24 September 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220924022037/https://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/a-raca-indesejavel/ |url-status=live }} Scientific racism largely influenced race relations in Brazil since the late 19th century. The predominant non-white, mostly Afro-Brazilian population was seen as a problem for Brazil in the eyes of the predominantly white elite of the country. In contrast to some countries, like the United States or South Africa, which tried to avoid miscegenation, even imposing anti-miscegenation laws, in Brazil miscegenation was always legal. What was expected was that miscegenation would eventually turn all Brazilians into whites. However, the most recent census in 2010 showed a shift in mentality, with a growing number of Brazilians identifying themselves as brown or Black, accompanied by a decrease in the percentage of whites,{{cite news |author=Tom Phillips in Rio de Janeiro |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/17/brazil-census-african-brazilians-majority |title=Brazil census shows African-Brazilians and Mestizos in the majority for the first time | World news |newspaper=The Guardian |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=17 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201117161532/https://www.theguardian.com/world/2011/nov/17/brazil-census-african-brazilians-majority |url-status=live }} with affirmative action and identity valorisation being factors.{{Cite web |url=https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2019/05/22/ibge-em-todas-as-regioes-mais-brasileiros-se-declaram-pretos.htm |title=Número de brasileiros que se declaram pretos cresce no país, diz IBGE |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=14 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200514193626/https://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/ultimas-noticias/2019/05/22/ibge-em-todas-as-regioes-mais-brasileiros-se-declaram-pretos.htm |url-status=live }}

As a result of that desire of whitening its own population, the Brazilian ruling classes encouraged the arrival of massive European immigration to the country. In the 1890s, 1.2 million European immigrants were added to the country's 5 million whites. Today the Brazilian areas with larger proportions of whites tend to have been destinations of massive European immigration between 1880 and 1930.

The following are the results for the different Brazilian censuses, since 1872:

{{Race and ethnicity in Brazil}}

File:Meirelles-primeiramissa2.jpg]]

Brazil received more European settlers during its colonial era than any other country in the Americas. Between 1500 and 1760, about 700,000 Europeans immigrated to Brazil.{{cite web |url=https://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses|title=IBGE teen |date=24 February 2013 |access-date=19 August 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130224012534/http://www.ibge.gov.br/ibgeteen/povoamento/portugueses.html |archive-date=24 February 2013}}

In the first two centuries of colonization (16th and 17th centuries), it is estimated that no more than 100,000 Portuguese people migrated to Brazil. They were more affluent immigrants, who settled mainly in the captaincies of Pernambuco and Bahia, to explore sugar production, which was the most profitable activity in the colony at that time.{{cite web |url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses.html |title=Presença portuguesa: de colonizadores a imigrantes |publisher=IBGE |access-date=24 January 2019 |archive-date=25 January 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190125183156/https://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses.html |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses/imigracao-restrita-1500-1700 |title=Imigração restrita (1500-1700) |publisher=IBGE |access-date=9 April 2017 |quote=20160824185122 |archive-date=24 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824185122/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses/imigracao-restrita-1500-1700 |url-status=live }} At the end of the 16th century, the white population (the vast majority Portuguese) was of over 30,000 people, mainly concentrated in the captaincies of Pernambuco, Bahia and São Vicente. The colonization process continued throughout the 17th century and by the end of the century, the white population was of nearly 100,000 people.{{cite journal |last1=Bacci |first1=Massimo Livi |title=500 anos de demografia brasileira: uma resenha |trans-title=500 years of Brazilian demography: a review |language=pt |journal=Revista Brasileira de Estudos de População |date=2002 |volume=19 |issue=1 |url=https://rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/335 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929125153/https://rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/335 |url-status=live }}

File:Ouro Preto, Brazil, 2011 (6288971321).jpg, one of the main Portuguese settlements founded during colonial Brazil, in Minas Gerais state. The town has preserved its colonial appearance to this day.]]

It is notable that most Portuguese settlers arrived in Brazil in the 18th century: 600,000 in a period of only sixty years. Initially unattractive during the first two centuries of colonization, as it concentrated sugar production, which required high investments, by the end of the 17th and in the beginning of the 18th centuries, due to the retreat of the Portuguese Empire in Asia and the discoveries of gold in the Brazilian region of Minas Gerais, there were more favorable conditions for the arrival of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil. There was no need for major investments for mining activity. Mining in these regions was a crucial factor in the arrival of this contingent of Portuguese immigrants.{{cite web |url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses/imigracao-de-transicao-1701-1850 |title=Imigração de transição (1701-1850) |publisher=IBGE |access-date=7 April 2017 |quote=20160824185036 |archive-date=24 August 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160824185036/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/portugueses/imigracao-de-transicao-1701-1850 |url-status=live }}

A characteristic of the Portuguese colonization is that it was predominantly male. Portuguese immigration to Brazil in the 16th and 17th centuries was made up almost exclusively of men. The typical Portuguese settler in Brazil was a young man in his late teens or in his early twenties, coming from the provinces of Northern Portugal, most notably Minho and Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, or from the Atlantic islands. White women of marriageable age were rare throughout the Portuguese maritime Empire. The few Portuguese families that immigrated to Brazil tended to stay on the coast, rarely penetrating the interior. The situation changed slightly in the 18th century, when the migration of families and women from the Azores and Madeira islands increased.Escravos e Libertos no Brasil Colonial. A.J.R RUSSEL-WOOD.

In addition to the fact that marriageable Portuguese women who arrived in Brazil were rare, the few remaining white women often remained celibate, as it was a tradition among aristocratic or richer white families to send their daughters to Catholic convents, where they would follow a religious life. Given this absence of white women available for marriage, it was inevitable for Portuguese colonists to take as a lover a woman of African or indigenous origin. The Portuguese Crown's concern about the scarcity of marriages among whites in the colony became evident in 1732, when John V of Portugal prohibited women from leaving Brazil, with some exceptions. In order to curb miscegenation, in a royal decree of 1726, the king demanded that all candidates for positions in the municipal councils of Minas Gerais had to be whites and husbands or widowers of white women. Restrictive measures like this, however, would not be able to restrict the natural tendency to miscegenation in colonial Brazil.

Thus, the "white" population of colonial Brazil was not formed by the multiplication of European families in the colony, as occurred, for example, in the United States, but often by the miscegenation between European men and African or indigenous women, giving rise to a population defined as "white", but which was, to a greater or lesser degree, of mixed-race heritage. This population, speaking Portuguese and completely integrated with the "neo-Brazilian" culture, has assisted the Portuguese colonizers to impose their dominant characteristics in Brazil.

Image:A_Brazilian_woman_and_her_baby_1855.jpg|{{center|Unidentified woman and baby in Rio de Janeiro, 1855.}}

Image:Chiquita_1891.jpg|{{center|Portrait of Francisca "Chiquinha" in Rio de Janeiro, 1891}}

Image:10562_-_01,_Acervo_do_Museu_Paulista_da_USP.jpg|{{center|Unknown Brazilian family, 1880}}

Image:Unknown_brazilian_girl_1889.jpg|{{center|Unknown Brazilian girl, 1889}}

Image:Unknown_young_man_1850.jpg|{{center|Unknown young Brazilian man, 1850}}

Image:Unknown_family_1860_00.jpg|{{center|Unknown Brazilian family, 1860}}

Image:Velho_entregando_carta_de_amor_à_uma_mulher_mulata._Obra_de_Carlos_Julião.jpg|{{center|White man delivering a love letter to a mulatto woman}}

Image:Homem_e_Mulher_de_casaco._Obra_de_Carlos_Julião.png|{{center|Woman and man of colonial Brazil}}

File:Comemoração_do_aniversário_do_Rancho_Folclórico_Portuguesa_Santista,_realizada_no_dia_14_de_julho_de_2018_(42529794855).jpg]]

File:Portugueses1.jpg

According to estimates of Brazil's ethnic composition in 1835 (excluding the indigenous peoples), just over half of the Brazilian population was black (51.4%), followed by whites (24.4%) and brown people (18.2%). About four decades later, in 1872, the census registered significant changes in the ethnic composition: blacks dropped to 19.7%, while whites increased their proportion to 38.1% and brown people became the most numerous, at 42.2%.{{Cite web |url=https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/173_0.pdf |title=FACT AND MYTH:DISCOVERING A RACIAL PROBLEM IN BRAZIL |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=21 March 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200321191537/https://kellogg.nd.edu/sites/default/files/old_files/documents/173_0.pdf |url-status=live }}

The proportional reduction of blacks and the increase of whites and brown people, between 1835 and 1872, had little or nothing to do with a recent European immigration: between 1822 and 1872, only 268,000 European immigrants entered Brazil, and these immigrants and their descendants did not exceed 6% of the Brazilian population in 1872.{{cite journal |last1=Júnior |first1=Judicael Clevelario |title=A participação da imigração na formação da população brasileira |trans-title=The participation of immigration in the formation of the Brazilian population |language=pt |journal=Revista Brasileira de Estudos de População |date=1997 |volume=14 |issue=1/2 |pages=51–71 |url=https://www.rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/421 |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=21 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200821154030/https://www.rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/421 |url-status=live }} This change can be explained by the fact that the Portuguese colonizers and their descendants managed to reproduce much more quickly than Africans and their descendants. During the three centuries of African slavery in Brazil, the growth of the black population was basically due to the importation of new slaves from Africa, given that the natural reproduction of slaves was very slow and even little stimulated (it was more economical to buy new slaves than to take care of slave children). Moreover, life expectancy of slaves in Brazil was very low.{{Cite web |url=http://www.historica.arquivoestado.sp.gov.br/materias/anteriores/edicao51/materia01/ |title=EXPECTATIVA DE VIDA E MORTALIDADE DE ESCRAVOS: Uma análise da Freguesia do Divino Espírito Santo do Lamim – MG (1859-1888) |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=15 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200815161212/http://www.historica.arquivoestado.sp.gov.br/materias/anteriores/edicao51/materia01/ |url-status=live }} In the words of Augustin Saint-Hilaire: "An infinity of blacks died without leaving any descendants". In 1850, with the prohibition of the entry of new slaves in Brazil, the proportional growth of the black population not only stagnated, but also decreased substantially, as can be seen.Viagem à província de São Paulo, fls. 69, Livraria Itatiaia Editora Ltda, 1976)

File:Reden%C3%A7%C3%A3o.jpg by Galician artist Modesto Brocos, showing a Brazilian family each generation becoming "whiter" (black grandmother, mulatto mother, white father, and white baby), 1895]]

On the other hand, the Portuguese and their descendants managed to increase their numbers, year after year, not by the entry of new immigrants, but by their remarkable reproductive capacity, particularly through miscegenation with indigenous and black women, which explains the continuous growth of “whites” and mainly of "brown people" in the 19th century. Genetic studies show that, even in Brazilian regions that received little or virtually no European immigration after independence from Portugal (such as the North and Northeast), European genetic ancestry predominates in the population.{{cite journal |author1=Ronald Rodrigues de Moura |author2=Antonio Victor Campos Coelho |author3=Valdir de Queiroz Balbino |author4=Sergio Crovella |author5=Lucas André Cavalcanti Brandão |date=10 September 2015 |journal=American Journal of Human Biology|volume=27|number=5|pages=674–680 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.22714 |title=Meta-analysis of Brazilian genetic admixture and comparison with other Latin America countries |pmid=25820814 |hdl=11368/2837176 |s2cid=25051722 |hdl-access=free }} European ancestry is greater than the African or Amerindian ones in all regions of Brazil.

This does not mean that the majority of the population in these regions is "white"; on the contrary, due to the high degree of miscegenation between Europeans, Africans and Amerindians, in the North and Northeast regions of Brazil only a minority is white, and the majority identify themselves as “brown” in the censuses;{{cite web |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/2094#/n1/all/n2/all/n3/all/v/1000093/p/last%201/c86/allxt/c133/0/d/v1000093%201/l/v,p+c86,t+c133/resultado |title=Sistema IBGE de Recuperação Automática - SIDRA |date=2010 |access-date=13 January 2019 |publisher=Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) |work=Tabela 2094 - População residente por cor ou raça e religião |archive-date=15 February 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160215103043/http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl.asp?c=2094&z=cd&o=7&i=P#/n1/all/n2/all/n3/all/v/1000093/p/last%201/c86/allxt/c133/0/d/v1000093%201/l/v,p+c86,t+c133/resultado |url-status=live }} however, the genetic composition of these regions, with a predominance of European ancestry, particularly Portuguese, highlights the genetic legacy inherited from Portuguese colonization and the complex miscegenation that occurred back then.{{cite journal |last1=Pena |first1=Sérgio D. J. |last2=Di Pietro |first2=Giuliano |last3=Fuchshuber-Moraes |first3=Mateus |last4=Genro |first4=Julia Pasqualini |last5=Hutz |first5=Mara H. |last6=Kehdy |first6=Fernanda de Souza Gomes |last7=Kohlrausch |first7=Fabiana |last8=Magno |first8=Luiz Alexandre Viana |last9=Montenegro |first9=Raquel Carvalho |last10=Moraes |first10=Manoel Odorico |last11=Moraes |first11=Maria Elisabete Amaral de |last12=Moraes |first12=Milene Raiol de |last13=Ojopi |first13=Élida B. |last14=Perini |first14=Jamila A. |last15=Racciopi |first15=Clarice |last16=Ribeiro-dos-Santos |first16=Ândrea Kely Campos |last17=Rios-Santos |first17=Fabrício |last18=Romano-Silva |first18=Marco A. |last19=Sortica |first19=Vinicius A. |last20=Suarez-Kurtz |first20=Guilherme |title=The Genomic Ancestry of Individuals from Different Geographical Regions of Brazil Is More Uniform Than Expected |journal=PLOS ONE |date=16 February 2011 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=e17063 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0017063 |pmid=21359226 |pmc=3040205 |bibcode=2011PLoSO...617063P |doi-access=free }}

{{Main|Dutch Brazil|France Antarctique|France Équinoxiale|War of the Seven Reductions}}

File:QT - Johann Moritz 1937.PNG, governor of Dutch Brazil or New Holland]]

Before the 19th century, the French invaded twice, establishing brief and minor settlements (Rio de Janeiro, 1555–60; Maranhão, 1612–15).Paul Louis Jacques Gaffarel, Histoire du Brésil français au seizième siècle (Paris: Maison Neuve, 1878). In 1630, the Dutch made the most significant attempt to seize Brazil from Portuguese control. At the time, Portugal was in a dynastic union with Spain, and the Dutch hostility against Spain was transferred to Portugal. The Dutch were able to control most of the Brazilian Northeast{{snd}} then the most dynamic part of Brazil{{snd}} for about a quarter century, but were unable to change the ethnic makeup of the colonizing population, which remained overwhelmingly Portuguese by origin and culture.{{cite book |author=Johannes Menne Postma |title=The Dutch in the Atlantic slave trade, 1600–1815 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=1990 |isbn= 0-521-36585-6 | pages= 18–20 |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=dzI8C0Vka7IC |page=18}}}} Sephardic Jews of Portuguese origin moved from Amsterdam to New Holland; but in 1654, when the Portuguese regained control of Brazil, most of them were expelled, as well as most of the Dutch settlers.{{cite web |author=Beth Capelache de Carvalho |title=Histórias e lendas de santos: os imigrantes: A colônia judaica (1)", A Tribuna de Santos, 27 June 1982 |url=http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/santos/h0150c.htm |access-date=25 May 2009 |archive-date=21 May 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090521185337/http://www.novomilenio.inf.br/santos/h0150c.htm |url-status=live }} A group of Dutch and Portuguese Jews then moved to North America, forming a Jewish community in New Amsterdam, today's New York city, while a few of the Dutch colonists settled in the highlands in the countryside of Pernambuco known as Borborema Plateau, a region part of the ecosystem known as agreste between the coastal forest zona da mata and the semiarid sertão in the Northeast.{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Brazil.html|title=Brazil Virtual Jewish History Tour|website=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-date=5 September 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150905080813/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Brazil.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16538.html|title=Recife, Brazil|website=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org|access-date=18 April 2016|archive-date=28 December 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161228222831/https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0017_0_16538.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.colonialvoyage.com/dutch-in-brazil/|title=The Dutch colonialism in Brazil|website=Colonialvoyage.com|date=14 January 2014|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-date=6 May 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170506225238/http://www.colonialvoyage.com/dutch-in-brazil/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.bneianussim.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/origem-judaica-cearenses-permanbucanos-alagoanos-mineiros-teshuvah/|title=Nordestinos anusim de ascendência judaica podem tornar-se cidadãos israelenses|publisher=Matéria jornalística em Diário do Nordeste, Fortaleza CE|date=13 October 2005|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-date=12 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161012062306/https://bneianussim.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/origem-judaica-cearenses-permanbucanos-alagoanos-mineiros-teshuvah/|url-status=live}}

Aside these military attempts, a very small number of non-Portuguese people appear to have managed to enter Brazil from European countries other than Portugal.{{cite web |author=Flávia de Ávila |title=Entrada de Trabalhadores Estrangeiros no Brasil: Evolução Legislativa e Políticas Subjacentes nos Séculos XIX e XX. PhD thesis |location=Florianópolis |publisher=Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina |year=2003 |pages=31–32 |url=http://www.tede.ufsc.br/teses/PDPC0641.pdf |access-date=15 January 2014 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924113824/http://www.tede.ufsc.br/teses/PDPC0641.pdf |url-status=live }} [1.21MB PDF file] Ávila cites Manuel Diégues Júnior, Imigração, urbanização e industrialização: Estudo sobre alguns aspectos da contribuição cultural do imigrante no Brasil (Brasília: MEC, 1964), p. 18.

However, in the Southern Brazilian areas disputed between Portugal and Spain, Spanish colonists largely contributed for the ethnic formation of the local population, denominated Gaúchos. A genetic research conducted by FAPESP (Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo) on Gaúchos from Bagé and Alegrete, in Rio Grande do Sul, Southern Brazil, revealed that they are mostly descended from Portuguese and Spanish ancestors, with 52% of them having Amerindian MtDNA (similar to that found in people who live in the area of the Amazon rainforest, and significantly higher than the national average{{snd}} 33%{{snd}} among Brazilian whites) and 11% African MtDNA.{{cite web |url=http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/?art=3194&bd=1&pg=1&lg= |title=O DNA dos Pampas |website=Revistapesquisa.fapesp.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=24 February 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120224144523/http://revistapesquisa.fapesp.br/?art=3194&bd=1&pg=1&lg= |url-status=live }} Another study also concluded that for the formation of the Gaúcho there was a predominance of Iberians, particularly Spaniards.{{cite web|url=http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/10934|title=História genética dos gaúchos : dinâmica populacional do sul do Brasil|website=Lume.ufrgs.br|access-date=11 July 2014|archive-date=16 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116103021/http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/10934|url-status=live}} To evaluate the extension of Gaucho genetic diversity of the Gauchos, and retrieve part of their history, a study with 547 individuals, of which 278 were Native Americans (Guarani and Kaingang) and 269 admixed from the state of Rio Grande do Sul, was carried out. The genetic finding matches with the explanation of sociologist Darcy Ribeiro about the ethnic formation of the Brazilian Gaúchos: they are mostly the result of the miscegenation of Spanish and Portuguese males with Amerindian females.RIBEIRO, Darcy. O Povo Brasileiro, Companhia de Bolso, fourth reprint, 2008 (2008).

Another genetic study found possible relics of the 17th-century Dutch invasion in Northeastern Brazil.{{cite journal|title=The Phylogeography of Brazilian Y-Chromosome Lineages |date= January 2001|pmc=1234928 | pmid=11090340 |doi=10.1086/316931 |volume=68 |journal=Am. J. Hum. Genet. |pages=281–6 | last1 = Carvalho-Silva | first1 = DR | last2 = Santos | first2 = FR | last3 = Rocha | first3 = J | last4 = Pena | first4 = SD|issue= 1}}

{{Main|Immigration to Brazil|European immigration to Brazil}}

File:20ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(18848130328).jpg]]

File:Italians Sao Paulo - original.jpg of São Paulo ({{circa|1890)}}]]

File:Oktoberfest - A maior festa alemã das Américas - Blumenau – SC - panoramio.jpg]]

File:Festa-confederada-brasil-estados-unidos-santa-bárbara-doeste.JPG]]

The main immigrant group to arrive in Brazil from the end of the 19th century onwards were the Italians, and they went mainly to São Paulo. In the early days, immigrants from northern Italy predominated, especially from Veneto, however, at the end of the century, the southern presence grew, especially from Campania and Calabria. The Italians, pressured by the poverty that plagued Italy, headed for rural settlements in southern Brazil, where they became small farmers, as well as for coffee farms in the southeast, where they replaced slave labor. Others, especially the southern ones, went straight to urban centers.Angelo Trento. Do outro lado do Atlântico: um século de imigração italiana no Brasil. Studio Nobel

The second main group were the Portuguese who, added to the colonizing population of the earlier centuries, form the most important European group in Brazil. The fragmentation and disappearance of small properties in northern Portugal at the end of the 19th century stimulated a growing emigration to Brazil, which was seen by the Portuguese as a land of abundance and opportunities for enrichment. Of those who arrived, most headed for the city of Rio de Janeiro. Young immigrants who arrived supported by a pre-existing solidarity network represented 8 to 11% of immigrants; those qualified or possessing capital to invest in Brazil constituted about 10% of the total, while immigrants without any type of qualification made up no less than 80% of the Portuguese who arrived in Rio at the end of the 19th century.{{Cite book|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=_7wFLsXaDkEC&dq=%22baganha%22+%22+nenhum+tipo+de+qualifica%C3%A7%C3%A3o%22&pg=PA138|title = Saudades d'Além-Mar: A revista 'Lusitania' e a imigração portuguesa no Rio de Janeiro (1929-1934)|isbn = 9788523706333|last1 = Oliveira|first1 = Carla Mary S.|year = 2013| publisher=Editora da UFPB |access-date = 25 December 2021|archive-date = 23 April 2023|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173538/https://books.google.com/books?id=_7wFLsXaDkEC&dq=%22baganha%22+%22+nenhum+tipo+de+qualifica%C3%A7%C3%A3o%22&pg=PA138|url-status = live}}

The third most numerous group came from Spain. Spaniards, often forgotten by Brazilian historiography, went mainly to São Paulo, to work in the coffee plantations. They were mainly from southern Spain, from the Andalusia region, although the flow from Galicia was also important.Marília Dalva Klaumann Cánovas. Imigrantes espanhóis na Pauliceia. EDUSP

The fourth most relevant group were the Germans. The promotion of German immigration to Brazil was old, dating back to 1824, with the presence of immigrants who had a great importance in the occupation of southern Brazil. They founded rural communities, which later became prosperous cities, such as São Leopoldo, Joinville and Blumenau.{{Cite web |url=https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=honors |title=German Immigration and Adaptation to Latin America |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=12 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200812210518/https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1110&context=honors |url-status=live }}

It was only in 1818 that the Portuguese rulers abandoned the principle of restricting settling in Brazil to Portuguese nationals.{{fact|date=May 2023}} In that year over two thousand Swiss migrants from the Canton of Fribourg arrived to settle in an inhospitable area near Rio de Janeiro that would later be renamed Nova Friburgo.{{cite web|url=http://www.multirio.rj.gov.br/historia/modulo02/colonia_suica.html|title=A Colônia Suíça de Nova Friburgo|website=Multirio.rj.gov.br|access-date=19 August 2017|archive-date=25 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150425230652/http://www.multirio.rj.gov.br/historia/modulo02/colonia_suica.html|url-status=live}}

The end of the slave trade (1850) and the abolition of slavery (1888) prompted the Brazilian State to promote European immigration to Brazil. The production of coffee, the main product of Brazil at the time, began to suffer a shortage of workers due to the slave emancipation process. In one hundred years (1872-1972) at least 5,350,889 immigrants came to Brazil, of whom 31.06% were Portuguese, 30.32% Italians, 13.38% Spaniards, 4.63% Japanese, 4.18% Germans and 16.42% of other unspecified nationalities. These immigrants settled mostly in the South and Southeast regions of Brazil.

Brazilian scientific thought at the time, which was strongly marked by positivism, adopted "scientific theses" of social Darwinism and eugenics to defend the "whitening" of the population as a necessary factor for the development of Brazil. The Brazilian social and political elite, which was mostly white, took it for granted that the country did not develop because its population was largely composed of black and mixed-race people. Immigration was not only considered a means of supplying the necessary labor in the fields, or of colonizing the national territory covered by virgin forests, but also as a means of "improving" the Brazilian population by increasing the number of whites.VAINFAS, Ronaldo. Dicionário do Brasil Imperial. Rio de Janeiro: Objetiva, 2002, p 152 Hence, Brazilian immigration policies were strongly influenced by the racial whitening ideology that permeated the Brazilian social and political imaginary during the first half of the 20th century.{{cite journal |last1=Ennes |first1=Marcelo Alario |title=Imigração e direitos na região noroeste paulista |trans-title=Immigration and rights in the northwest region of São Paulo |language=pt |journal=Estudos de Sociologia |date=2006 |volume=1 |issue=12 |pages=53–78 |url=https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/revsocio/article/view/235391 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=26 January 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210126000232/https://periodicos.ufpe.br/revistas/revsocio/article/view/235391 |url-status=live }}

South American oligarchies, which remained predominantly of European origin, believed{{snd}} in syntony with the racialist theories then widespread in Europe{{snd}} that the large numbers of blacks, Amerindians and mixed-race people who made up the majority of the population were a handicap to the development of their countries. As a result, countries such as Argentina, Uruguay and Brazil started to encourage the arrival of European immigrants, in order to make the white population grow and to dilute the African and Amerindian blood in their population. Argentina even had an article in its Constitution prohibiting any attempt to prevent the entry of European immigrants in the country.Senado de la Nación Argentina, [http://www.senado.gov.ar/web/interes/constitucion/capitulo1.php Constitución de la Nación Argentina] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130412110428/http://www.senado.gov.ar/web/interes/constitucion/capitulo1.php |date=12 April 2013}} Art. 25 {{blockquote|El Gobierno federal fomentará la inmigración europea; y no podrá restringir, limitar ni gravar con impuesto alguno la entrada en el territorio argentino de los extranjeros que traigan por objeto labrar la tierra, mejorar las industrias, e introducir y enseñar las ciencias y las artes}} In the case of Brazil, the immigrants started arriving in huge numbers during the 1880s. From 1886 to 1900, almost 1.4 million Europeans arrived, of whom over 900,000 were Italians. During this period of 14 years, Brazil received more Europeans than during the over 300 years of colonization.

File:Lavoura_de_café.jpg plantation in Brazil (early 20th century)]]

The mass European immigration to Brazil only started in the second half of the 19th century, from 1850 to 1970 over 5 million Europeans arrived, because of three main reasons:

• to "whiten" Brazil, since the Amerindian and African elements were very strong in the population, a fact that was considered a problem by the local elite, that considered these races inferior. Bringing European immigrants was seen as a way to "improve" the racial composition of the local population;
• to populate inhospitable areas of Brazil, mostly the Southern provinces;
• to replace African manpower, since the Atlantic slave trade was effectively suppressed in 1850 and coffee plantations were spreading in the region of São Paulo.

Brazilian coffee producers, fearful of the crisis in the labor force, began to put pressure on the Legislative Branch to facilitate the entry of foreign workers to be inserted as manpower in the coffee plantations. To this end, laws were enforced to facilitate the entry of immigrants and the Brazilian government started to spend public money paying the passage of immigrants from Europe. The state of São Paulo, in the first decade of the Republican Regime, allocated about 9% of its revenue to cover spending on promoting immigration.{{cite journal |last1=Santos |first1=Cleyton Rodrigues dos |title=Da escravidão à imigração: a transição do trabalho escravo para o trabalho livre assalariado no Brasil |trans-title=From slavery to immigration: the transition from slave to free wage labor in Brazil |language=pt |journal=Intertem@s |date=2003 |volume=6 |issue=6 |url=http://intertemas.toledoprudente.edu.br/index.php/Direito/article/view/121 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929125224/http://intertemas.toledoprudente.edu.br/index.php/Direito/article/view/121 |url-status=live }}

European immigrants were brought to Brazil mostly to replace the slave labor in coffee plantations. Brazilian landowners, who were used to deal with slaves, began to deal with free and paid European workers. These immigrants were often mistreated by Brazilian farmers and subjected to conditions of semi-slavery. The conditions were so harsh that, in 1902, the Italian government issued Prinetti Decree, which restricted the emigration of Italian citizens to Brazil, prohibiting travel subsidies. In 1910, Spain banned subsidized immigration to Brazil, after complaints that Spanish citizens were living in conditions of semi-slavery in coffee plantations of Brazil.{{cite book |last1=Fausto |first1=Boris |title=Fazer a América: a imigração em massa para a América Latina |date=1999 |publisher=EdUSP |isbn=978-85-314-0484-9 }}{{page needed|date=November 2020}}

File:07669_Polonia_Brazylia_Araucaria_1.jpg]]

File:PomerodeSouthGate.jpg, Santa Catarina state, where the German language is still spoken]]

The immigration of millions of Europeans to Brazil, between the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, contributed to bring greater diversity to the Brazilian population. It is estimated that about 20% of the Brazilian population is descended from people who immigrated to the country in that period, and, in certain regions of the South and Southeast, this percentage is much higher. In the regions where they concentrated most, these immigrants created Europeanized landscapes and bequeathed a dominantly "white" population, creating a human panorama different from the relative Portuguese-Brazilian uniformity of the country, but where it is possible to distinguish the sub-areas where each ethnic group was concentrated, whether German, Italian, Polish or Russian.

The process of acculturation of these immigrants in the Brazilian society was highly variable from nationality to nationality. Portuguese, Italians and Spaniards assimilated more easily; Russians, Poles and Austrians occupied an intermediate position, while Germans were more resistant.{{Cite web |url=http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/bitstream/handle/10183/18345/000725735.pdf?sequence=1 |title=O Talian entre o italiano-padrão e o português brasileiro. |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=1 February 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140201174111/http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/bitstream/handle/10183/18345/000725735.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}

The influence of the environment cannot be underestimated: immigrants who went to coffee farms or urban centers assimilated more easily, as there was daily contact with Brazilians, generating common interests, friendships and mixed marriages. In these regions, the Portuguese language quickly supplanted the languages of the immigrants, facilitating their process of acculturation.

In turn, the immigrants who went to the rural settlements (colonies) were gathered in isolated groups, maintaining little contact with the rest of the Brazilian society, which allowed the maintenance of language and ethnic identity for generations. Until the 1940s, in the colonies, few descendants of immigrants knew how to speak Portuguese, even though some of them had been living in Brazil for generations. The big blow came through the nationalization campaign, implemented during Getúlio Vargas's dictatorship, starting in 1937. The Brazilian government started to see the immigrant colonies as a “national problem”, which threatened the uniformity of Brazilian identity, and their inhabitants were subject to great repression. Vargas ordered all schools associated with foreign cultures to be closed, forcing all schools to teach exclusively in Portuguese, and the use of foreign languages, including orally, in public or in private, was banned in Brazil, with people being arrested and beaten.{{Cite web |url=http://www.encontro2012.historiaoral.org.br/resources/anais/3/1340395352_ARQUIVO_BibianaWerle.pdf |title=Memória da campanha de nacionalização nas regiões de imigração alemã |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=28 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628212820/http://www.encontro2012.historiaoral.org.br/resources/anais/3/1340395352_ARQUIVO_BibianaWerle.pdf |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Seyferth |first1=Giralda |title=A dimensão cultural da imigração |trans-title=The cultural dimension of immigration |language=pt |journal=Revista Brasileira de Ciências Sociais |date=October 2011 |volume=26 |issue=77 |pages=47–62 |doi=10.1590/S0102-69092011000300007 |doi-access=free }}{{cite journal |last1=Seyferth |first1=Giralda |title=A assimilação dos imigrantes como questão nacional |trans-title=Assimilation of immigrants as a national issue |language=pt |journal=Mana |date=April 1997 |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=95–131 |doi=10.1590/S0104-93131997000100004 |doi-access=free }}{{Cite web |url=https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vida-e-cidadania/um-processo-cultural-forcado-b73qkcnp9beqib9ifwa8tw95a/ |title="Um processo cultural forçado" |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=27 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527234130/https://www.gazetadopovo.com.br/vida-e-cidadania/um-processo-cultural-forcado-b73qkcnp9beqib9ifwa8tw95a/ |url-status=live }}

Even with the repression of Vargas Estado Novo dictatorship, minority languages of European origin still survive in certain communities concentrated in southern Brazil, mainly of German, Italian and Slavic origin. However, their use has been decreasing in recent generations. The break with the isolation of these communities, with the improvement of highways and infrastructure, the need to learn Portuguese to enter the job market, as well as the diffusion of the media (press, radio, television, internet), has led to the growing use of the Portuguese language in these communities.{{Cite web |url=http://www.cadernosdeletras.uff.br/index.php/cadernosdeletras/article/download/308/161 |title=COMPARANDO O USO DAS LÍNGUAS PELOS FALANTES DE MINORIAS LINGUÍSTICAS: O CASO DOS DESCENDENTES ALEMÃES NO BRASIL E O CASO DOS GREGOS NA GEÓRGIA |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=29 February 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200229171526/http://www.cadernosdeletras.uff.br/index.php/cadernosdeletras/article/download/308/161 |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |url=http://www.ibero-americana.net/files/ejemplo_por.pdf |title=Política lingüística, mitos e concepções lingüísticas em áreas bilíngües de imigrantes (alemães) no Sul do Brasil |publisher=Ibero-americana.net |access-date=12 August 2015 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924032323/http://www.ibero-americana.net/files/ejemplo_por.pdf |url-status=dead }}{{cite web |title=OS CENSOS LINGÜÍSTICOS E as Políticas Lingüísticas no Brasil Meridional |url=http://e-ipol.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Censos_Linguisticos_no_Brasil_-_Politicas_Linguisticas_no_Brasil_Meridional.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150209191322/http://e-ipol.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/06/Censos_Linguisticos_no_Brasil_-_Politicas_Linguisticas_no_Brasil_Meridional.pdf |archive-date=9 February 2015 |access-date=17 May 2020}}{{cite web |url=https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/102069/214105.pdf?sequence=1 |title="Die kann nun nich', die is' beim treppenputzen!" O PROGRESSIVO NO ALEMÃO DE POMERODE–SC |author=Ina Emmel |year=2005 |publisher=UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=28 June 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210628212815/https://repositorio.ufsc.br/bitstream/handle/123456789/102069/214105.pdf?sequence=1 |url-status=live }}

File:Rainha e Princesas da Festa da Uva em 1934.jpg|Italian Brazilian girls in Caxias do Sul, 1934.

File:Ukrainians in Brazil.jpg|Ukrainian family in Brazil, 1891.

File:Afot3602.jpg|Portuguese immigrant in Rio de Janeiro, 1895.

File:Familia-Oppelt-Costamilan-1.jpg|Italian family in Southern Brazil, 1901.

File:Passaporte português de 1927.jpg|Passport of a Portuguese immigrant, 1927.

File:Imigrantes italianos na Hospedaria dos Imigrantes.jpg|Group of Italians arriving in São Paulo.

File:Picking coffee in Brazil.jpg|European immigrants working in a coffee plantation in the State of São Paulo.

File:Imigrantes no pátio central da Hospedaria dos Imigrantes de São Paulo.jpg

File:Evangelic School Hamburgo Velho.jpg, Rio Grande do Sul state, in 1886]]

Most of the 4,431,000 immigrants that entered the country between 1821 and 1932 settled in São Paulo (state) and other Southeastern states:{{cite book|author1=Samuel L. Baily|author2=Eduardo José Míguez|title=Mass Migration to Modern Latin America|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NZQxkfvMJFgC&pg=PR14|access-date=20 December 2015|year=2003|publisher=Rowman & Littlefield|isbn=978-0-8420-2831-8|page=xiv|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173606/https://books.google.com/books?id=NZQxkfvMJFgC&pg=PR14|url-status=live}} São Paulo received most of the Italians (Veneto, Lombardy, Campania, Tuscany, Calabria, Liguria, Piedmont, Umbria, Emilia-Romagna, Abruzzi e Molise and Basilicata) and Spaniards (Galicians, Castilians and Catalans) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and from the 1910s on most of the Lithuanians, Dutch, French, Hungarians, Baltic Finns, Ashkenazi Jews (from diaspora communities in Poland, Romania, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Lithuania, Russia and Czechoslovakia), Latvians, Greeks, Armenians, Czech, Croatians, Slovenians, Bulgarians, Albanians and Georgians;{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/regioes-de-origem|title=Províncias de origem dos imigrantes italianos|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=31 August 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160831165302/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/regioes-de-origem|url-status=live}}{{cite web|author=Marília D. Klaumann Cánovas|url=http://though.cchla.ufpb.br/saeculum/saeculum11_art08_canovas.pdf|title=A GRANDE IMIGRAÇÃO EUROPÉIA PARA O BRASIL E O IMIGRANTE ESPANHOL NO CENÁRIO DA CAFEICULTURA PAULISTA: ASPECTOS DE UMA (IN)VISIBILIDADE|trans-title=The great European immigration to Brazil and immigrants within the Spanish scenario of the Paulista coffee plantations: one of the issues (in) visibility|language=pt|website=Cchla.ufpb.br|date=2004|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003141402/http://www.cchla.ufpb.br/saeculum/saeculum11_art08_canovas.pdf|archive-date=3 October 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://mundoestranho.abril.com.br/materia/quais-foram-as-maiores-levas-de-imigracao-para-o-brasil|title=Principais levas de imigração para o Brasil|publisher=Abril|access-date=6 April 2016|archive-date=2 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160402110848/http://mundoestranho.abril.com.br/materia/quais-foram-as-maiores-levas-de-imigracao-para-o-brasil|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.swierenga.com/Madrid_pap.html|title=Research Professor, A.C. Van Raalte Institute, Hope College, Holland, Michigan, USA|publisher=Twelfth International Economic History Conference, Madrid, Spain, 28 August 1998 (Session C-31)|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324131950/http://www.swierenga.com/Madrid_pap.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Brazil.html#4 |title=Brazil – Modern-Day Community |website=Jewishvirtuallibrary.org/ |year=2013 |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-date=4 November 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131104052948/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/vjw/Brazil.html#4 |url-status=live }}{{cite journal |last1=Levy |first1=Maria Stella Ferreira |title=O papel da migração internacional na evolução da população brasileira (1872 a 1972) |trans-title=The role of international migration on the evolution of the Brazilian population (1872 to 1972) |language=pt |journal=Revista de Saúde Pública |date=June 1974 |volume=8 |issue=suppl |pages=49–90 |doi=10.1590/S0034-89101974000500003 |doi-access=free }}{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/regioes-de-destino.html|title=Regiões de destino dos imigrantes italianos|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=14 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314230306/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/regioes-de-destino.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.mfa.gov.hu/kulkepviselet/BR/pt/br_bilateralis/br_egyeb.htm|title=Embaixada da Hungria no Brasil sobre as estatísticas de descendentes de húngaros|website=Mfa.gov.hu|access-date=4 May 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161112124520/http://www.mfa.gov.hu/kulkepviselet/BR/pt/br_bilateralis/br_egyeb.htm|archive-date=12 November 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.cheflaszlo.com/Hungariansoutside.html|title=The Situation of Hungarians Living outside the Carpathian Basin, by Cheflaszlo|last=Cheflaszlo|website=Cheflaszlo.com|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080417021604/http://www.cheflaszlo.com/Hungariansoutside.html|archive-date=17 April 2008|url-status=usurped}}{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/judeus/judeus-no-brasil-vida-social-politica-e-cultural|title=Judeus no Brasil. Vida social, política e cultural|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=31 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531232300/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/judeus/judeus-no-brasil-vida-social-politica-e-cultural|url-status=live}}{{cite web | url=http://www.msz.gov.pl/files/docs/polonia/Raport_PPG.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120721162143/http://www.msz.gov.pl/files/docs/polonia/Raport_PPG.pdf |archive-date=21 July 2012 | title=Raport o sytuacji Polonii i Polaków za granicą (The official report on the situation of Poles and Polonia abroad) | publisher=Ministerstwo Spraw Zagranicznych (Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland) | location=Warsaw |year=2009 | access-date=14 June 2013 | author=Wojciech Tyciński, Krzysztof Sawicki, Departament Współpracy z Polonią MSZ | pages=1–466 | format=PDF file, direct download 1.44 MB}} Rio de Janeiro (state) received most of the Portuguese immigrants followed by SP, as well as most of the Swiss and Belgians. Together with São Paulo and Santa Catarina, RJ was one of the main destinations for Swedes, Norwegians, Danes but also French and received the second largest number of Jews after SP. São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro followed by Paraná also received most of the English-Welsh and Scots;{{cite web|author=Marília D. Klaumann Cánovas|url=http://www.cchla.ufpb.br/saeculum/saeculum11_art08_canovas.pdf|title=A GRANDE IMIGRAÇÃO EUROPÉIA PARA O BRASIL E O IMIGRANTE ESPANHOL NO CENÁRIO DA CAFEICULTURA PAULISTA: ASPECTOS DE UMA (IN)VISIBILIDADE|trans-title=The great European immigration to Brazil and immigrants within the Spanish scenario of the Paulista coffee plantations: one of the issues (in) visibility|language=pt|website=Cchla.ufpb.br|date=2004|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091003141402/http://www.cchla.ufpb.br/saeculum/saeculum11_art08_canovas.pdf|archive-date=3 October 2009}}{{cite web|url=http://www.helb.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141:a-presenca-britanica-e-a-lingua-inglesa-na-corte-de-d-joao&catid=1095:ano-4-no-04-12010&Itemid=13|title=A Presença Britânica e a Língua Inglesa na Corte de D. João. Escrito por Joselita Júnia Viegas Vidotti (USP)|issn=1981-6677|publisher=USP|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423102940/http://www.helb.org.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=141:a-presenca-britanica-e-a-lingua-inglesa-na-corte-de-d-joao&catid=1095:ano-4-no-04-12010&Itemid=13|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=8J1IPgAACAAJ|title=Ingleses no Brasil: aspectos da influência britânica sobre a vida, a paisagem e a cultura do Brasil|publisher=Gilberto Freyre Editora Topbook|access-date=10 April 2016|isbn=9788574750231|year=2000|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173538/https://books.google.com/books?id=8J1IPgAACAAJ|url-status=live}}{{cite web |url=https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2009/127381.htm |title=Brazil – International Religious Freedom Report 2009 |website=State.gov/ |date=26 October 2009 |access-date=22 December 2013 |archive-date=12 May 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190512190112/https://www.state.gov/j/drl/rls/irf/2009/127381.htm |url-status=live }} The countryside of Espírito Santo was mainly populated by people arriving from Germany, especially Pomeranians (Prussia), Switzerland, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Denmark, Luxembourg, France, Romania, Slovakia and Iberia, comprising chiefly Catalans but including Basques and Andorrans.{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|title=Regiões de origem e de destino dos imigrantes teutônicos|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426203508/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/os-imigrantes-alemaes-no-brasil.html|title=Os imigrantes teutônicos no Brasil- alemães, austríacos, luxemburgueses, pomeranos e volga|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=7 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307005617/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/os-imigrantes-alemaes-no-brasil.html|url-status=live}} Minas Gerais received generally Italians, looking for arable acreage in the 19th century, and Portugueses early in the 18th during the Gold and Diamond Rush. Minas Gerais was also destination for Germans, Czech, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, Ashkenazi Jews, Spaniards, Serbians, Greeks, Armenians, and Lebanese who settled the country.{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/arabes/origem-e-destino-dos-imigrantes|title=Origem e destino dos imigrantes|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182057/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/arabes/origem-e-destino-dos-imigrantes|url-status=live}}

However, the impact of the White immigration was larger in Southern Brazil, because even though it got a lesser migration, since it had a very small population, the immigration's impact was greater to its demography when compared to other Brazilian regions. The main concentrations in Rio Grande do Sul were Venetian Italians where their dialect is still spoken and Germans from the Hunsrück region of Germany (Rhineland-Palatinate) who also kept their Hunsrückisch dialect known as Riograndensisch, followed by Poles. Their arriving numbers supplanted the previous Iberian population, founding cities like Novo Hamburgo and Garibaldi.{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|title=Regiões de origem e de destino dos imigrantes teutônicos|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426203508/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|url-status=live}} German immigrants first arrived in 1824 settling in the Sinos River Valley, where one of the first colonies to take an urbanized figure was Hamburger Berg, future Novo Hamburgo, dismembered from or spun out of São Leopoldo, dubbed the cradle of German culture in Brazil.Altenhofen, Cléo Vilson: Hunsrückisch in Rio Grande do Sul, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996, p. 24. Its capital, Porto Alegre, has the third largest Jewish population in the nation.{{cite web |url=http://www.firgs.org.br/paginas/a-federacao-israelita-do-rio-grande-do-sul-.aspx |title=Federação Israelita do Rio Grande do Sul |website=Firgs.org.br |year=2009 |access-date=25 December 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090528001315/http://www.firgs.org.br/paginas/a-federacao-israelita-do-rio-grande-do-sul-.aspx |archive-date=28 May 2009}}

The vast majority of Slavs is concentrated in Paraná, mainly Poles, Ukrainians, Belarusians and Russians, followed by German and Italian dwellers in the countryside who also arrived to populate the sparsely inhabited South. Some localities like Mallet, a 19th-century settlement founded by Poles from Austrian Galicia (Eastern Europe) and Ukrainians that grew up to be a town, still maintain both their languages and traditions in a Polish-Ukrainian continuum. After 1909 Dutch settlers became accountable for the dairy farming development in the prairies region of the state, known as Campos Gerais do Paraná, where today are the towns of Castro and Carambeí dubbed Little Holland. The Castro region also received many Lithuanians. The capital, Curitiba, is home to a large figure of Volga Germans that outnumbered the initial and primary Bandeirante descent population during the Imperial period, Faroese people and other Scandinavians, as well as to Slavs, Italians, French, Swiss, Spaniards and one of the country's Jewish communities.{{cite web |title=Um atalho para a Europa |work=Epoca |publisher=Editora Globo S.A |date= 24 June 2002 |url=http://epoca.globo.com/edic/214/soci1a.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120821072841/http://epoca.globo.com/edic/214/soci1a.htm |archive-date=21 August 2012}}{{cite web |url=http://www.cidadao.pr.gov.br/modules/conteudo/conteudo.php?conteudo=77 |title=Paraná State Government page |website=Cidadao.pr.gov.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=16 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116091519/http://www.cidadao.pr.gov.br/modules/conteudo/conteudo.php?conteudo=77 |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=http://www.vanhoni.com.br/inauguracao-das-obras-de-restauro-da-igreja-sao-miguel-arcanjo-mallet-pr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630174757/http://www.vanhoni.com.br/inauguracao-das-obras-de-restauro-da-igreja-sao-miguel-arcanjo-mallet-pr/|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 June 2016|title=Restauração da igreja ortodoxa de Mallet – Marco da valorização da presença eslava no Sul do Brasil|website=Vanhoni.com|access-date=29 May 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://www.rcub.com.br/rcub/inaugurado-o-restauro-da-igreja-de-sao-miguel-arcanjo-na-serra-do-tigre-em-mallet/|title=Inaugurado o restauro da igreja ortodoxa de São Miguel Arcanjo em Mallet – Marco da imigração ucraniana no Brasil|publisher=Representação Central Ucraniano-Brasileira|access-date=29 May 2016|archive-date=13 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160513040004/http://www.rcub.com.br/rcub/inaugurado-o-restauro-da-igreja-de-sao-miguel-arcanjo-na-serra-do-tigre-em-mallet/|url-status=live}}

File:Monumento ao Imigrante2.jpg. "The Brazilian nation to the immigrant" ({{langx|pt|A nação brasileira ao imigrante}}) is read at the bottom.]]

Santa Catarina where over 50% of the population has German, Austrian and Luxembourgish ancestry (the local Hunsrückisch is known as Katharinensisch,{{cite web|url=http://universal_lexikon.deacademic.com/50707/Katharinensisch|title=Katharinensisch|publisher=Universal_lexikon.deacademic|access-date=8 November 2016|archive-date=8 November 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161108195346/http://universal_lexikon.deacademic.com/50707/Katharinensisch|url-status=live}} East Pomeranian is still spoken in the town of Pomerode and Southern Austro-Bavarian by the Tyrolean population in Treze Tílias) was also the main destination for Danes and the state that was sparsely populated and had its shore mainly inhabited by Azoreans in the 18th century (e.g. Laguna born Anita Garibaldi, wife and comrade-in-arms of Italian Unification revolutionary Giuseppe Garibaldi), also received Italians, French, Swedes, Norwegians, Swiss, Lithuanians and Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Poles, Slovenians, Croatians, Belgians and Spaniards to populate its interior during the 19th century. The town of Brusque founded by Austrian Baron von Schneeburg bringing German families from the Grand Duchy of Baden to settle in the northeast of Santa Catarina, besides receiving additional waves of Italians from the Tyrol–South Tyrol–Trentino Euroregion, Poles and Swedes, was also one of the destinations in the South and Southeast for American Confederate settlers in 1867, differing from São Paulo and Paraná colonies, where the American Confederate presence gave birth to new towns such as Americana in São Paulo. Neighboring towns such as Nova Trento founded in 1875, similarly received subjects from the Austro-Hungarian Empire because Italian-speaking Tyroleans known as trentinos and Germans from the Kingdom of Prussia, historic Swabia and Baden faced an immense crisis in the agricultural sector caused by the conflicts of the unification of Italy and Germany respectively, that weakened local trade. Istrian Italians under the Austrian Empire rule also fled Istria to settle in Brazil, and a few towns like Nova Veneza, founded in 1891 still have an over 90% Venetian population of which many still speak the Talian dialect. Most Venetians settled after the Third Italian War of Independence in 1866, when Venice, along with the rest of the Veneto, became part of the newly created Kingdom of Italy.{{cite web|url=http://7a12.ibge.gov.br/voce-sabia/calendario-7a12/evento/88-aniversario-de-joinville-sc.html|title=Joinville e Orleans, imigração para Santa Catarina|publisher=IBGE|access-date=6 April 2016|archive-date=22 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160322174108/http://7a12.ibge.gov.br/voce-sabia/calendario-7a12/evento/88-aniversario-de-joinville-sc.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.observatorioemigracao.secomunidades.pt/np4/2533.html|title=Base de dados de emigrantes açorianos para o Brasil nos séculos XVIII e XIX|publisher=Observatório da Emigração|access-date=7 April 2016|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130921110111/http://www.observatorioemigracao.secomunidades.pt/np4/2533.html|archive-date=21 September 2013}}

The Europeanization was so longed that by 1895 the government of São Paulo spent about 15% of its annual budget on subsidies for immigrants.{{cite book|author1=Tanya Katerí Hernández|title=Racial subordination in Latin America|date=2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-107-02486-1|pages=50–51|edition=1st|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ARE8CLMToC&pg=PA50|access-date=21 September 2014|chapter=Brazilian "Jim Crow": The Immigration Law Whitening Project and the Customary Law of Racial Segregation – A Case Study|archive-date=27 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527055636/https://books.google.com/books?id=e_ARE8CLMToC&pg=PA50|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Portuguese Brazilians}}

File:Imigrantes portugueses.jpg kids waiting for a ship to leave for Brazil (early 20th century)]]

File:Casal imigrantes portugueses.jpg, São Paulo state, in 1887]]

Between 1500 and 1808, it is estimated that 500,000 Portuguese went to live in Brazil; the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics estimated the number of Portuguese settlers at 700,000, from 1500 to 1760.

After independence in 1822, about 1.79 million Portuguese immigrants arrived in Brazil, most of them in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most of these immigrants settled in Rio de Janeiro.

Portuguese immigration to Brazil in the 19th and 20th centuries was marked by its concentration in the most urbanized states of São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. The immigrants opted mostly for urban centers. In Portugal, trade was seen as the great chance of enrichment for those who emigrated and this explains why most Portuguese immigrants chose the city of Rio de Janeiro as their main destination. Many of those who arrived came to work as clerks in one of the countless warehouses of the city. Others survived as small street traders, selling from brooms to live birds, or working as dockers in the port area.{{cite journal |last1=Oliveira |first1=Carla Mary S |title=O Rio de Janeiro da Primeira República e a imigração portuguesa: panorama histórico |trans-title=Rio de Janeiro of the First Republic and Portuguese immigration: historical overview |language=pt |journal=Revista do Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro |volume=3 |year=2009 |pages=149–168 |url=http://wpro.rio.rj.gov.br/revistaagcrj/o-rio-de-janeiro-da-primeira-republica-e-a-imigracao-portuguesa-panorama-historico/ |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=7 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201207195323/http://wpro.rio.rj.gov.br/revistaagcrj/o-rio-de-janeiro-da-primeira-republica-e-a-imigracao-portuguesa-panorama-historico/ |url-status=live }}

Portuguese women appeared with some regularity among immigrants, with percentage variation in different decades and regions of the country. However, even among the influx of Portuguese immigrants at the turn of the 20th century, there were 319 men to each 100 women among them.{{cite journal |last1=Klein |first1=Herbert S. |title=A integração social e econômica dos imigrantes portugueses no Brasil no fim do século XIX e no século XX |trans-title=The social and economic integration of Portuguese immigrants in Brazil in the late 19th and 20th centuries |language=pt |journal=Revista Brasileira de Estudos de População |date=1989 |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=17–37 |url=https://rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/555 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=6 December 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201206050050/https://www.rebep.org.br/revista/article/view/555 |url-status=live }} The Portuguese were different from other immigrants in Brazil, like the Germans,{{cite web|url=http://ich.unito.com.br/materia/resource/download/41917|title=Retrato Molecular- Genética|website=Ich.unito.com.br|access-date=19 August 2017}} {{dead link|date=November 2017 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes}} or Italians{{cite book |url={{Google books |plainurl=yes |id=ncc7WLAXlmQC |page=99}} |title=Do outro lado do Atlântico: um século de imigração italiana no Brasil |access-date=25 August 2014}} who brought many women along with them (even though the proportion of men was higher in any immigrant community). Despite the smaller female proportion, Portuguese men married mainly Portuguese women. Female immigrants rarely married Brazilian men. In this context, the Portuguese had a rate of endogamy which was higher than any other European immigrant community, and behind only the Japanese among all immigrants.{{cite web |url=http://analisesocial.ics.ul.pt/documentos/1223290545Z8cUY2rh7Lu99TE5.pdf |title=A integração social e económica dos imigrantes portugueses no Brasil nos finais do século xix e no século xx |access-date=25 August 2014 |archive-date=26 September 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090926193236/http://analisesocial.ics.ul.pt/documentos/1223290545Z8cUY2rh7Lu99TE5.pdf |url-status=live }}

Portuguese people are still the biggest group of foreigners living in the country, with 137,973 Portuguese-born people living in Brazil as of 2010.{{cite web |url=http://www.observatorioemigracao.secomunidades.pt/np4/paises.html?id=31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151124024632/http://www.observatorioemigracao.secomunidades.pt/np4/paises.html?id=31 |archive-date=24 November 2015 |title=Observatório da Emigração |access-date=16 May 2020 |url-status=dead}} The first half of 2011 alone saw an increase of 52,000 Portuguese nationals applying for a permanent residence visa while another large group was granted Brazilian citizenship.{{cite web|url=http://blog.opovo.com.br/portugalsempassaporte/mais-de-100-mil-portugueses-emigraram-em-2011-so-o-brasil-concedeu-mais-de-52-mil-vistos-de-residencia-nos-primeiros-seis-meses/|title=Só o Brasil concedeu mais de 52 mil vistos de residência nos primeiros 6 meses|publisher=Hey bro Graciano Coutinho OPovo|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170819190245/http://blog.opovo.com.br/portugalsempassaporte/mais-de-100-mil-portugueses-emigraram-em-2011-so-o-brasil-concedeu-mais-de-52-mil-vistos-de-residencia-nos-primeiros-seis-meses/|archive-date=19 August 2017|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://www.brasil.gov.br/economia-e-emprego/2011/11/economia-brasileira-atrai-estrangeiros-e-imigracao-aumenta-50-em-seis-meses|title=Imigração aumenta 50 por cento em seis meses|website=Brasil.gov.br|access-date=7 April 2016|archive-date=23 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160423131836/http://www.brasil.gov.br/economia-e-emprego/2011/11/economia-brasileira-atrai-estrangeiros-e-imigracao-aumenta-50-em-seis-meses|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Italian Brazilian}}

File:Imigrantes da Italia.jpg

About 1.64 million Italians arrived in Brazil, starting in 1875. First they settled as small landowners in rural communities across Southern Brazil. In the late 19th century, the Brazilian State offered land to immigrants, in conditions that made it possible to buy them.{{cite web|url=http://www.pesquisa.uncnet.br/pdf/historia/IMIGRACAO_MEMORIA.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090320031859/http://www.pesquisa.uncnet.br/pdf/historia/IMIGRACAO_MEMORIA.pdf|title=IMIGRAÇÃO E MEMÓRIA|url-status=dead|archive-date=20 March 2009|date=20 March 2009|access-date=11 January 2018}} Later, their destination were mostly the coffee plantations in the Southeast, especially the states of São Paulo and Minas Gerais, where they initially worked for the local landowners, either for a wage or under a contract that allowed them to use a portion of land for subsistency, in exchange for labour in the plantation.{{cite web |url=http://www.familiasceccon.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=7 |title=TICON – TICOM – Breve História da Imigração Italiana |publisher=Familias CECCON |date=23 June 2006 |access-date=23 January 2014 |archive-date=16 January 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116135205/http://www.familiasceccon.com.br/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=15&Itemid=7 |url-status=dead }}

In São Paulo capital, which came to be labeled an "Italian city" in the early twentieth century, Italians engaged mainly in the incipient industry and urban services activities. They came to represent 90% of the 60,000 workers employed in São Paulo factories in 1901.{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/os-imigrantes-nas-cidades.html|title=São Paulo capital, uma cidade italiana e os misteres profissionais dos imigrantes italianos|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=14 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160314215330/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/italianos/os-imigrantes-nas-cidades.html|url-status=live}}

Italians made up the main group of immigrants to Brazil in the late 19th century.

The largest group of Italian settlers came from Veneto and, according to Ethnologue, today around 4 million people still speak the Venetian dialect called Talian or Veneto in Southern Brazil.{{e16|vec|Venetian}} Veneto was followed mainly by Campania, Lombardy, Calabria, Abruzzi e Molise, Tuscany and Emilia Romagna.

{{Main|Spanish Brazilians|Spanish immigration to Brazil}}

About 720,000 Spaniards came to Brazil, starting in the late 19th century. Most of them were attracted to work in the coffee plantations in the state of São Paulo.

São Paulo attracted between 66% and 75% of the Spaniards who migrated to Brazil. In this state, 55% were from Andalusia and 23% from Galicia. Most of them had their passage by ship paid by the Brazilian government, emigrated in families and were taken to the coffee farms for the needed manpower.

In the other Brazilian states, Spanish immigrants from Galicia predominated and those were predominantly males, who emigrated alone and paid for their passage by ship. Galician smallholders and artisans settled mainly in urban areas of Brazil and eventually became factory workers.{{cite conference |last1=Corbacho Quintela |first1=Antón |title=Os periódicos dos imigrantes espanhóis |trans-title=Spanish immigrant journals |language=pt |conference=Proceedings of the 2. Congresso Brasileiro de Hispanistas |year=2002 |url=http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=MSC0000000012002000200006 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=4 August 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200804191555/http://www.proceedings.scielo.br/scielo.php?pid=MSC0000000012002000200006&script=sci_arttext |url-status=live }}

{{Main|German Brazilians|Austrian Brazilians}}

File:Students and teachers at a German school in Blumenau in 1866.jpg, 1866]]

File:Ichblumenau.jpg) in front of the Blumenau city hall]]

About 260,000 Germans settled in Brazil, starting in 1824. They were the fourth largest nationality to immigrate to Brazil, after the Portuguese (1.8 million), the Italians (1.6 million), the Spaniards (0.72 million); Germans were followed by the Japanese (248,000), the Poles and the Russians.

Most German immigrants in Brazil became small landowners in the interior of the southern region. They started very poor but, over time, their settlements grew and they prospered. In the 1930s, while occupying less than 0.5% of Brazil's arable land, German communities generated 8% of the Brazilian agricultural production. Over time, some of the German settlements became urbanized and by 1930 Germans owned 10% of industries and 12% of trade in Brazil. Other settlements remained rural and rather isolated and even today many of their inhabitants are still able to speak German or a Germanic dialect.OLIVEIRA, Denisson de. Os soldados Alemães de Vargas, JURUA EDITORA, 2008 (2008)

Brazil is home to the second largest population of German descent outside Germany, only behind the United States, and German is the second most spoken language in the country, after Portuguese.{{cite web|url=http://graduate.olivet.edu/news-events/news/second-most-spoken-languages-around-world|title=Olivet Second Most Spoken Languages Around the World|website=Olivet.edu|date=7 April 2015|access-date=29 March 2016|archive-date=29 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180729003624/https://graduate.olivet.edu/news-events/news/second-most-spoken-languages-around-world|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/country/BR|title=Brazil|work=Ethnologue.com|access-date=11 January 2018|archive-date=1 July 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180701140236/https://www.ethnologue.com/country/br|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ethnologue.com/language/hrx|title=Hunsrik|work=Ethnologue.com|access-date=11 January 2018|archive-date=7 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707172737/http://www.ethnologue.com/language/hrx|url-status=live}} According to Ethnologue, Standard German is spoken by 1.5 million people and Brazilian German encompass assorted dialects, including Riograndenser Hunsrückisch spoken by over 3 million Brazilians.{{cite web|url=http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/download/59772/62881|title=O PANORAMA LINGÜÍSTICO BRASILEIRO : A COEXISTÊNCIA DE LÍNGUAS MINORITÁRIAS COM O PORTUGUÊS|website=Revistas.usp.br|access-date=21 August 2017|archive-date=11 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161011024548/http://www.revistas.usp.br/flp/article/download/59772/62881|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/20697|title=Os imigrantes alemães e seus descendentes no Brasil : a língua como fator identitário e inclusivo|website=Lume.ufrgs.br|access-date=21 August 2017|archive-date=16 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816064441/http://www.lume.ufrgs.br/handle/10183/20697|url-status=live}}Altenhofen, Cléo Vilson: Hunsrückisch in Rio Grande do Sul, Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart 1996

Today more speakers of the East Pomeranian dialect can be found in Brazil than its original Low German-speaking land, and the dialect is especially spoken in Pomerode, Santa Catarina as well as in the states of Espírito Santo and Rio Grande do Sul where it enjoys co-official status.Ina Emmel (2005). ""Die kann nun nich', die is' beim treppenputzen!" O PROGRESSIVO NO ALEMÃO DE POMERODE–SC" (PDF). UNIVERSIDADE FEDERAL DE SANTA CATARINA. Other dialects include Luxembourgish (part of the Moselle Franconian dialects group together with Hunsrik), Swiss Alemannic, Low Saxon–rooted Plautdietsch, spoken by Mennonites from the former Soviet Union (since the 1930s),{{cite journal|title=Eine Gruppe – Zwei Geschichten – Drei Sprachen. Rußlanddeutsche Mennoniten in Brasilien und Paraguay |author=Göz Kaufmann|journal=Zeitschrift für Dialektologie und Linguistik|volume=71|issue=3|date=2004|pages=257–306|publisher=Franz Steiner Verlag|jstor=40505042}}{{cite web |url=http://www.jungegemeinde.de/texte/jgakt600.htm |title=Mennoniten – junge gemeinde – Mennoniten in Lateinamerika / Paraguay / Brasilien / Bolivien / Mexiko / Südamerika |publisher=Jungegemeinde.de |date=18 March 2007 |access-date=11 August 2015 |archive-date=3 March 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303214429/http://www.jungegemeinde.de/texte/jgakt600.htm |url-status=live }} Southern Austro-Bavarian, Tyrol dialect and Vorarlberg High Alemannic German, especially in Dreizehnlinden, Santa Catarina (since 1933),{{cite web|url=http://derstandard.at/1343744748893/Schuhplattln-auf-brasilianisch|title=Schuhplattln auf Brasilianisch|author=René Laglstorfer|work=derStandard.at|access-date=4 August 2015|archive-date=21 April 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150421194427/http://derstandard.at/1343744748893/Schuhplattln-auf-brasilianisch|url-status=live}} and Danube Swabian in Guarapuava, Paraná (since 1951).{{cite web|url=http://www.suabios.com.br/|title=Fundação Cultural Suábio-Brasileira|website=SDuabios.com.br|access-date=4 August 2015|archive-date=20 November 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151120155539/http://suabios.com.br/|url-status=live}}

The vast majority of Germans settled in the states of São Paulo, Rio Grande do Sul, Santa Catarina, Paraná, and Rio de Janeiro. Less than 5% of Germans settled in Minas Gerais, Pernambuco, and Espírito Santo.

The most influenced state by the German immigration was Santa Catarina, where Germans and Austrians were about 50% of all foreigners (Germans, 40%; Austrians, 10%), it was the only state where Germans were the principal nationality among foreigners. Other states with some significant proportion were Rio Grande do Sul (Germans, slightly over 25%) and Paraná (Germans, 10%; Austrians, 10%).

The Oktoberfest of Blumenau in Santa Catarina is Brazil's largest and the world's second largest (after Germany's main beer festival in Munich).{{cite web |url=http://www.skyscanner.net/news/top-10-oktoberfest-s-around-world |title=Top 10 Oktoberfest's around the world |publisher=Skyscanner |date=19 September 2011 |access-date=5 September 2013 |archive-date=11 July 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170711191818/https://www.skyscanner.net/news/top-10-oktoberfest-s-around-world |url-status=live }}

Endogamy was the rule among the 19th-century German, Austrian and Luxembourgish colonies and young married women in the homogeneously isolated German colonies settled in the three Southern states had a high fertility rate of 8–9 children per woman; that was especially the case for those youths married between 20 and 24 years old.

In Rio Grande do Sul, the House of Representatives recognized Hunsrückisch as an official Intangible cultural heritage of historical value to be preserved.{{cite web|url=http://www.al.rs.gov.br/legis/M010/M0100018.asp?Hid_IdNorma=58094|title=Sistema Legis|website=Al.rs.gov.br|access-date=6 May 2016|archive-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330024004/http://www.al.rs.gov.br/legis/M010/M0100018.asp?Hid_IdNorma=58094|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.al.rs.gov.br/legis/M010/M0100099.ASP?Hid_Tipo=TEXTO&Hid_TodasNormas=58094&hTexto=&Hid_IDNorma=58094|title=Texto da Norma|website=Al.rs.gov.br|access-date=6 May 2016|archive-date=30 March 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190330024221/http://www.al.rs.gov.br/legis/M010/M0100099.ASP?Hid_Tipo=TEXTO&Hid_TodasNormas=58094&hTexto=&Hid_IDNorma=58094|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Polish Brazilian}}

File:Curitiba - Bosque do Papa - Casa de Colono Polones.jpg house in Paraná]]

Poles came in significant numbers to Brazil after 1870. Most of them settled in the State of Paraná, working as small farmers. From 1872 to 1919, 110,243 "Russian" citizens entered Brazil. In fact, the vast majority of them were Poles ("Russian" Catholics), since, up to 1917, a part of Poland was under Russian rule due to the Partitions of Poland and ethnic Poles immigrated with Russian passports.{{cite journal |last1=Decol |first1=René D. |title=Uma história oculta: a imigração dos países da Europa do Centro-Leste para o Brasil |trans-title=A hidden story: immigration from Central European countries to Brazil |language=pt |journal=Anais |date=24 February 2016 |pages=1–12 |url=http://www.abep.org.br/publicacoes/index.php/anais/article/view/973 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929160022/http://www.abep.org.br/publicacoes/index.php/anais/article/view/973 |url-status=live }}

Polish can still be heard in small towns such as Mallet, Paraná, where the vast majority of the population descends from Western and Northern Slavic settlers who arrived in Brazil in the 1890s (mostly Poles who came from Galicia which was under Austrian rule then).{{cite journal |last1=da Costa |first1=Luciane Trennephol |last2=Gielinski |first2=Márcia Inês |title=Detalhes fonéticos do Polonês falado em Mallet |trans-title=Phonetic details of Polish spoken in Mallet |language=pt |journal=Revista (Con) Textos Linguísticos |date=2014 |volume=8 |issue=10 |pages=159–174 |url=https://periodicos.ufes.br/index.php/contextoslinguisticos/article/view/7328 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=13 April 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210413100040/https://periodicos.ufes.br/index.php/contextoslinguisticos/article/view/7328 |url-status=live }}{{cite journal|title=Perfil de descendentes de poloneses residentes no sul do Brasil: a constituição da(s) identidade(s)|first1=Silvia Regina|last1=Delong|first2=Dorotea Frank|last2=Kersch|date=17 September 2014|journal=Domínios de Lingu@gem|volume=8|issue=3|pages=65–85|doi=10.14393/DLesp-v8n3a2014-5|doi-access=free}}

The city of Curitiba has the second largest Polish diaspora in the world (after Chicago) and Polish music, dishes and culture are quite common in the region.

{{Main|Swiss Brazilian}}

File:Colonizacaonf.jpg in Rio de Janeiro's mountain range during the 1820s]]

In 1818, King John VI of Portugal and Brazil, then resident in Rio de Janeiro, authorized the entry into Brazil of Swiss immigrants from the canton of Fribourg (Switzerland). The parish founded in 1819 was given the name of "São João Batista de Nova Friburgo" (Saint John the Baptist of New Fribourg), {{langx|de|Neufreiburg}}.{{cite journal|title=From Nova Friburgo to Fribourg in writing: Swiss colonization seen by the immigrants|first=Gisele|last=Sanglard|date=1 April 2003|journal=História, Ciências, Saúde-Manguinhos|volume=10|issue=1|pages=173–202|doi=10.1590/S0104-59702003000100006|doi-access=free}}

{{Main|Luxembourgish Brazilians}}

An estimated 80,000 Brazilians are of Luxembourgian descent due to a small immigration of Luxembourgers to Brazil, mostly during the late 19th and early 20th centuries."De L'Etat à la nation 1839–1989" Imprimeries St. Paul p. 145{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|title=Regiões de origem dos imigrantes falantes de dialetos alemães|publisher=IBGE|access-date=6 April 2016|archive-date=26 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160426203508/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/alemaes/regioes-de-origem-e-de-destino-dos-imigrantes|url-status=live}}

{{Main|Ukrainian Brazilians}}

File:Cerimonia de bencao dos alimentos.jpg descent celebrating Easter in Curitiba]]

More than 20,000 Ukrainians came to Brazil between 1895 and 1897, settling mostly in the countryside of Paraná and working as farmers in the state, today a land of regnant Orthodox churches, where Slavic traditions can be witnessed all over the territory.{{cite web|url=http://www.vanhoni.com.br/inauguracao-das-obras-de-restauro-da-igreja-sao-miguel-arcanjo-mallet-pr/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160630174757/http://www.vanhoni.com.br/inauguracao-das-obras-de-restauro-da-igreja-sao-miguel-arcanjo-mallet-pr/|url-status=dead|archive-date=30 June 2016|title=Restauração da igreja ortodoxa de estilo ucraniano de Mallet – Marco da valorização da presença eslava no Sul do Brasil|website=Vanhoni.com|access-date=29 May 2016}}

{{Main|Dutch Brazilian|Belgian Brazilian}}

File:MoinhoCastroParana.JPG. Dutch windmills are found in Paraná and São Paulo.]]

Dutch people first settled in Brazil during the 17th century, with the region of Pernambuco being a colony of the Dutch Republic from 1630 to 1654. The Dutch were then expelled as Portugal regained control of the region.{{Cite web |url=https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/2015/10/150925_portugal_holanda_brasil_lgb |title=Como Portugal comprou o Nordeste dos holandeses por R$ 3 bi |access-date=20 May 2020 |archive-date=16 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210216223854/https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/noticias/2015/10/150925_portugal_holanda_brasil_lgb |url-status=live }}

During the 19th and 20th century, a few immigrants from the Netherlands came to the central and southern states of Brazil.{{cite web |url=https://www.histedbr.fe.unicamp.br/navegando/glossario/verb_c_imigr_holandesa.htm |title=Imigração Holandesa no Brasil. Glossário. História, Sociedade e Educação no Brasil – HISTEDBR – Faculdade de Educação – UNICAMP |publisher=Histedbr.fae.unicamp.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130806223321/http://www.histedbr.fae.unicamp.br/navegando/glossario/verb_c_imigr_holandesa.htm |archive-date=6 August 2013}}{{cite web |url=http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.parceria.nl/Holanda/sp050428Beatrix_reinado/do05032_Beatrix_Brasil/es030402comunidade_holandes.html-redirected |title=Holandeses no Brasil - Radio Nederland, a emissora internacional e independente da Holanda - Português |access-date=30 August 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090906162936/http://static.rnw.nl/migratie/www.parceria.nl/Holanda/sp050428Beatrix_reinado/do05032_Beatrix_Brasil/es030402comunidade_holandes.html-redirected |archive-date=6 September 2009}}

The first Dutch immigrants to South America after its independence waves from their metropoles went to the Brazilian state of Espírito Santo between 1858 and 1862, where they founded the settlement of Holanda, a colony of 500 mainly Reformed folk from West Zeeuws-Vlaanderen in the Dutch province of Zeeland.

Dutch and other Low Franconian languages are still spoken in São Paulo (state), especially Holambra (named after Holland-America-Brazil), famous for its tulips and the annual Expoflora event, Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and around Ponta Grossa, Castrolanda and Carambeí known as little Holland, in the plains of Paraná, headquarters of several food companies and a dairy farming region.

Most Belgian settlements took place in Southern and Southeastern Brazil. Among the Flemish colonies are Itajaí (Santa Catarina – 1845), Porto Feliz (São Paulo – 1888),

Taubaté (São Paulo – 1889),DI LORENZO, Ana Lúcia. "Os italianos em Taubaté: o núcleo colonial do Quiririm – 1890/1920", Tese, São Paulo, 2002. p. 34 and Botucatu (São Paulo – 1960). Many Belgians also preferred to establish their lives in urban centers such as Rio de Janeiro capital.

{{Main|French Brazilians}}

Between 1850 and 1965 around 100,000 French people immigrated to Brazil. The country received the second largest number of French immigrants to South America after Argentina (239,000). It is estimated that there are 1.2 million Brazilians of French and Walloon descent today.{{cite web |url=http://vivrealetranger.studyrama.com/article.php3?id_article=216 |title=Vivre à l'étranger |quote=Ils ont été 100 000 à émigrer dans ce pays entre 1850 et 1965 et auraient entre 500 000 et 1 million de descendants. |date=25 January 2016 |access-date=6 April 2016 |archive-date=16 July 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110716160108/http://vivrealetranger.studyrama.com/article.php3?id_article=216 |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.ambafrance-br.org/IMG/pdf/27-06-13-La_France_et_le_Bresil_en_chiffre_2013.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=11 February 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116131612/http://www.ambafrance-br.org/IMG/pdf/27-06-13-La_France_et_le_Bresil_en_chiffre_2013.pdf |archive-date=16 January 2014}}

{{Main|Scandinavian Brazilian}}

The relations between Brazil and Sweden are rooted in the family ties of the Brazilian and the Swedish Royal Families and in the Swedish emigration to Brazil in the end of the 19th century. The wife of King Oscar I of Sweden and Norway, Queen Joséphine of Leuchtenberg, was sister to Amélie of Leuchtenberg, wife of Emperor Pedro I of Brazil. Diplomatic relations between Brazil and Sweden were established in 1826. During the mid to late 19th century many Scandinavians arrived in Brazil, particularly to the southern states as well as Rio de Janeiro, which features a Scandinavian Association,{{cite web|url=http://scandinavian-association.net/index.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070306045707/http://www.scandinavian-association.net/index.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=6 March 2007|title=Scandinavian Association Rio de Janeiro – Start|access-date=12 July 2014}} and São Paulo, where the Scandinavian church is based.

File:21ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(27024572454).jpg]]

{{Main|Russian Brazilians}}

Brazil was among the main destinations for Russian refugees during the 20th century.{{cite web |url=http://www.brasil-russia.com.br/comunidade.htm |title=Câmara de Comércio Brasil-Rússia |publisher=Brasil-russia.com.br |access-date=22 July 2012 |archive-date=25 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200525144021/https://brasil-russia.com.br/comunidade.htm |url-status=live }} Some Chinese immigrants to Brazil were of Russian descent, belonging to the country's ethnic Russian community.{{cite journal|last=Ruseishvili|first=S.A.|title=Russian immigration to Brazil in the first half of the 20th century: migration routes and adaptation patterns |url=https://www.iberpapers.org/jour/article/view/414?locale=en_US |journal= Cuadernos Iberoamericanos |year=2021 |volume=8 |issue=3|pages=54–73 |doi=10.46272/2409-3416-2020-8-3-54-73 |access-date=4 November 2022 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220306060807/https://www.iberpapers.org/jour/article/view/414?locale=en_US |archive-date=6 March 2022|quote=and the third one is the resettlement of the Russians from China during the 1950s.|doi-access=free }}

{{Main|Lithuanian Brazilians}}

File:20ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(18818636121).jpg

Lithuanian migration peaked in the 1920s and 1930s, when 35% of all emigrants from interwar Lithuania chosen Brazil as their destination, around 50,000 moved in.{{cite web|url=http://www.ilas.columbia.edu/event/brazil-brown-bag-seminar-series/|title=Brazil Brown Bag Seminar Series – Lithuanian Diaspora in the Americas by Erick Reis Godliauskas Zen. Organizer: Lemann Center for Brazilian Studies|website=Ilas.columbia.edu|access-date=21 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160415111124/http://www.ilas.columbia.edu/event/brazil-brown-bag-seminar-series/|archive-date=15 April 2016|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://global.truelithuania.com/brazil-474/|title=Lithuanian descendants in Brazil|website=Global.truelithuania.com|access-date=4 May 2016|archive-date=17 January 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210117182040/http://global.truelithuania.com/brazil-474/|url-status=live}} Besides Lithuanians, the Baltic diaspora also comprises one of the largest Latvian populations.{{cite web |url=http://www.brazilianembassy.se/english/latviaV2eng.asp |title=Brazilian Embassy in Stockholm |access-date=2 August 2017 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070104041645/http://www.brazilianembassy.se/english/latviaV2eng.asp |archive-date=4 January 2007}}{{cite web|url=http://www.lituanus.org/1987/87_3_02.htm|title=A Millenarian Migration: Varpa|website=Lituanus.org|access-date=30 May 2016|archive-date=6 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190806210527/http://www.lituanus.org/1987/87_3_02.htm|url-status=live}}

The first Lithuanians to set foot on Brazil in the 19th century had as their destination the newly established colony of Ijuí, situated on the red and fertile soil of the northwestern part of the state of Rio Grande do Sul, while most Lithuanians and Latvians would settle in São Paulo posteriorly. Besides São Paulo, other states that received Baltic people during the 20th century were Paraná, Rio de Janeiro, Santa Catarina and Espírito Santo. Latvian is still spoken in Santa Catarina and Paraná.

Today, the state of São Paulo is home to the majority of the Lithuanian Brazilians, and its capital hosts the only true Lithuanian neighborhood in South America – Vila Zelina. Its construction was carried out ~1927 when Lithuanian immigration was peaking. The district is centered around Republic of Lithuania Plaza (Praça República Lituânia), where 7 streets meet up (one of them named after a Lithuanian priest Pijus Ragažinskas (Pio Ragazinskas, 1907–1988) who started the only Lithuanian-Brazilian newspaper "Mūsų Lietuva"). Liberty statue (1977) that crowns the Plaza center is modelled after the one in Kaunas, Lithuania (that original symbol of interwar Lithuanian freedom had been pulled down by Soviets in 1950, making its reconstruction in communism-free São Paulo even more symbolic). It bears the inscription "Lietuviais esame gimę, lietuviais turime būt" ("Lithuanians we are born, Lithuanians we must be") – lyrics of a traditional patriotic song. They are joined by Columns of Gediminas, a symbol of the famous Gediminid dynasty (1315–1572) which brought the medieval Grand Duchy of Lithuania to its glory as the Europe's largest state. There's also a Lithuanian church facing the square.

File:22ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(35106433702).jpg

File:Penedo - RJ (3460397484).jpg, in the state of Rio de Janeiro, had Finnish colonization.]]

{{Main|Hungarian Brazilians|Category:Brazilian people of Estonian descent}}

Mostly Hungarians and Finns, followed by an Estonian minority of Finnic language, who also composes the Baltic Finns group.

Most Hungarian descendants live in São Paulo, where there are several Hungarian associations. Hungarians have two institutions with legal personality: the Brazilian-Hungarian Aid Association and the Brazilian-Hungarian Cultural Association and both own the auditorium Hungarian House. The Kálmán Könyves Free University is another organization to form the additional group.

Penedo, a small town located near Itatiaia National Park, was the first Finnish settlement to be established in Brazil. Finnish architecture, cuisine and traditional customs such as saunas, are still present and can be seen.{{cite web|url=http://hotelcachoeira.com.br/penedo/penedo/penedo/colonia-finlandesa-do-penedo.html |title=Hotel Cachoeira – Penedo, Lua de Mel, Pousada – Colônia Finlandesa do Penedo |access-date=6 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080523135914/http://hotelcachoeira.com.br/penedo/penedo/penedo/colonia-finlandesa-do-penedo.html |archive-date=23 May 2008 |url-status=dead |df=dmy}}{{cite web |url = http://www.suku.fi/emi/art/article300e.htm |title = Migration from Finland 1866–1970 |access-date = 6 June 2008 |archive-date = 20 July 2011 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20110720193330/http://www.suku.fi/emi/art/article300e.htm |url-status = dead }}{{cite web |url = http://itatiaia.rj.gov.br/conteudo/122/colonia-finlandesa |title = Colônia Finlandesa do Penedo |access-date = 24 August 2014 |archive-date = 26 August 2014 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20140826115119/http://itatiaia.rj.gov.br/conteudo/122/colonia-finlandesa |url-status = dead }}

File:22ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(35123968605).jpg

{{Main|British Brazilian|English Brazilians|Scottish Brazilians|Irish Brazilians}}

British immigration to Brazil can be divided into four main periods: colonial, monarchical, Old Republic and the 1960s/1970s. Most of the oldest capitals in Brazil possess colonial Anglican cemeteries or English cemeteries.{{cite book|url=http://m.travessa.com.br/produto.aspx?codartigo=93c7bc42-c94c-420c-9e1b-ede4b75974c4|title=Mapa de Luiz Jardim em Ingleses no Brasil: aspectos da influência britânica sobre a vida, a paisagem e a cultura do Brasil|publisher=travessa|access-date=10 April 2016|archive-date=22 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160422023138/http://m.travessa.com.br/produto.aspx?codartigo=93c7bc42-c94c-420c-9e1b-ede4b75974c4|url-status=live}} And a group of Scottish religious dissidents established a settlement in the northeast of Brazil during the colonial period. After Brazil was promoted to kingdom, the 19th century witnessed a new wave of British citizens settling in the country, since England had special trading privileges with the nation. English were responsible for most of the railways, public lighting and urban transportation like trams and Irish worked as manual workers in constructions such as the Madeira-Mamoré Railway in the rainforest.{{cite web|url=http://www.estantevirtual.com.br/b/gilberto-freyre/ingleses-no-brasil/426142595|title=1942 Gilberto Freyre|publisher=estantevirtual|access-date=10 April 2016|archive-date=24 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160424102353/http://www.estantevirtual.com.br/b/gilberto-freyre/ingleses-no-brasil/426142595|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/p/ingleses-no-brasil-546956|title=Ingleses no Brasil do século XIX|publisher=livrariacultura|access-date=10 April 2016|archive-date=20 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420233537/http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/p/ingleses-no-brasil-546956|url-status=live}}

The Anglo-Scots-Brazilian Charles William Miller is celebrated for making football popular in Brazil and deemed as the father of Brazilian football. Oscar Cox and his sibling Edwin, both children of an English diplomat, are also praised for pioneering football in Brazil and introducing the sport especially to the city of Rio de Janeiro during the 1900s.{{cite web|url=http://www.fluminense.com.br/memoria_historiaoscar.asp |language=pt |publisher=Fluminense Football Club |title=Oscar Cox |access-date=10 January 2010 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091219042942/http://www.fluminense.com.br/memoria_historiaoscar.asp |archive-date=19 December 2009}} Oscar organized the first football match in the history of the state of Rio de Janeiro in 1901 and then proceeded to São Paulo, with his select team, to play against the squad led by Charles Miller, who had started the process of disseminating football in São Paulo back in 1894.{{cite book|last=Nogueira|first=Cláudio|title=Futebol Brasil memória: de Oscar Cox a Leônidas da Silva (1897–1937)|pages=15, 16, 18|isbn=978-85-87864-96-3|publisher=SENAC|year=2006|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yV9tOJgR2QoC}} Even though the sport had been played in an informal manner since the 1870s by British, Dutch and French sailors, as well as by European immigrants, Miller's merit lays in the fact that he arrived in Brazil with the necessary apparatus for the organized practice of football, being the first team manager, and consolidating it within sports clubs by captivating the public, considering that the then British-Brazilians and other citizens of the period were more accustomed to cricket.{{cite web|url=http://entretenimento.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2014/06/24/guia-politicamente-incorreto-do-futebol-desconstroi-bom-mocismo-de-messi.htm|title=ROSSI, Jones (2014) Guia Politicamente Incorreto do Futebol|publisher=uol.com.br|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304052150/http://entretenimento.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2014/06/24/guia-politicamente-incorreto-do-futebol-desconstroi-bom-mocismo-de-messi.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://livraria.folha.com.br/livros/nao-ficcao-relacionada/guia-politicamente-incorreto-futebol-leonardo-1223343.html|title=ROSSI, Jones (2014) Guia Politicamente Incorreto do Futebol|publisher=livraria.folha.com.br|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=25 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625090755/http://livraria.folha.com.br/livros/nao-ficcao-relacionada/guia-politicamente-incorreto-futebol-leonardo-1223343.html|url-status=dead}} Bertha Lutz was a Brazilian zoologist, politician and diplomat born in 1894. Lutz, whose mother was a British nurse and father a Swiss Brazilian pioneering physician and epidemiologist, became a leading figure in both the Pan American feminist movement fighting for women's suffrage and human rights movement.

The 1960s and 1970s also saw new waves of English, Scottish and Welsh nationals, especially youths, immigrating to Brazil.{{cite web|url=http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/p/como-nao-aprender-ingles-661459|title=Britânicos radicados no Sudeste e Sul do Brasil durante os anos 1960 e 1970|publisher=Michael A. Jacobs, Como Não Aprender Inglês, página 250|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=21 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160421005249/http://www.livrariacultura.com.br/p/como-nao-aprender-ingles-661459|url-status=live}}{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BQpiiGDdkswC|title=Levas de humildes jovens ingleses, galeses e escoceses que se fixaram sobretudo em São Paulo e Rio de Janeiro durante os anos 1960 e 1970 fugindo de um rígido sistema de castas sociais|publisher=Michael A. Jacobs, Como Não Ensinar Inglês|access-date=11 April 2016|isbn=9788535242560|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173551/https://books.google.com/books?id=BQpiiGDdkswC|url-status=live}}

{{Main|American Brazilians|Confederados}}

File:Joseph Withaker e Isabel Norris.jpg]]

At the end of the American Civil War in the 1860s, a migration of Confederates to Brazil began, with the total number of immigrants estimated in the thousands. They settled primarily in Southern and Southeastern Brazil founding many towns in the state of São Paulo: Americana, Campinas, Santa Bárbara d'Oeste, Juquiá, New Texas, Eldorado (former Xiririca) as well as moving to the capital São Paulo.Eugene C. Harter. "The Lost Colony of the Confederacy". Texas A&M University Press, 1985, p. 74.

The bordering state of Paraná was the main destination in the South, followed by Santa Catarina and Rio Grande do Sul, where Americans arrived in 1867 settling in growing towns such as Brusque. The city of Rio de Janeiro, the town of Rio Doce in Minas Gerais and the state of Espírito Santo were other destinations in the Southeast region. Later waves settled in Santarém, Pará—in the north of the Amazon River—as well as in the states of Bahia and Pernambuco, adding a significant number of immigrants to the region's population. Altogether, close to 25,000 American immigrants settled in Brazil during the 19th century. That is one of the main reasons why emperor Dom Pedro II was the first foreign Chief of State and Head of Government to visit Washington, D.C. in 1876 and also attended the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia.{{cite web|url=http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/34912.htm|title=Visits to the U.S. by Foreign Heads of State and Government—1874–1939|publisher=2001-2009.state.gov|access-date=13 April 2015|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054303/http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/34912.htm|url-status=live}}

The first Confederado recorded was Colonel William H. Norris, a former senator of Alabama who left the U.S. with 30 Confederate families and arrived in Rio de Janeiro on 27 December 1865.{{cite web| last=Gage| first=Leighton| title=Brazilian Confederacy| url=http://sleuthsayers.blogspot.com/2012/01/brazilian-confederacy.html| publisher=Sleuthsayers| access-date=18 January 2012| location=São Paulo, Brasil| date=8 January 2012| archive-date=23 April 2023| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173543/https://www.sleuthsayers.org/2012/01/brazilian-confederacy.html| url-status=live}}

The settlement at Santa Bárbara D'Oeste is sometimes called the Norris Colony. The New Texas settlement leader, Frank McMullen, also left the U.S. in 1865 with former citizens of the Confederacy.{{Cite book | isbn = 1585441023 |title=The Lost Colony of the Confederacy | last1 = Harter | first1 = Eugene C. | year = 2000 | publisher = Texas A & M University Press |page=44}}{{cite web|url=http://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/1993/esjame93.html|title=Edwin S. James research materials|publisher=University of South Carolina|access-date=5 January 2014|archive-date=30 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140730002809/http://library.sc.edu/socar/uscs/1993/esjame93.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmcat|title=MCMULLAN, FRANCIS|publisher=Texas State Historical Association|access-date=5 January 2014|date=15 June 2010|archive-date=6 January 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140106040557/http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/fmcat|url-status=live}} Ethnically the Confederados cultural sub-group, the way how the Confederate colonies were named, were primally Scottish, English-Welsh, Irish, Scandinavian, Dutch and German, (ethnic Germans among Romanian, Czech, Russian and Polish immigrant descendants). More recently, other waves of American nationals became residents in the country.

Pérola Ellis Byington (Pearl) born in 1879 to the American immigrants Mary Elisabeth Ellis and Robert Dickson McIntyre in Santa Bárbara D'Oeste and married to the industrialist Alberto Jackson Byington, was an accoladed educator, social activist, philanthropist and volunteer for the American and Brazilian Red Cross, who had hospitals and a town in Paraná named after her.{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vL2AQpn22h8C&pg=PA178|title=Maternalism Reconsidered: Motherhood, Welfare and Social Policy in the Twentieth Century|first1=Marian van der|last1=Klein|first2=Rebecca Jo|last2=Plant|first3=Nichole|last3=Sanders|first4=Lori R.|last4=Weintrob|date=30 April 2012|publisher=Berghahn Books|isbn=9780857454676|access-date=27 May 2016|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173552/https://books.google.com/books?id=vL2AQpn22h8C&pg=PA178|url-status=live}}{{cite thesis |last1=Moura |first1=Marina de |title=A educação de crianças na Revista Infância |trans-title=The education of children in Revista Infância |language=pt |date=2 April 2015 |url=http://tede.mackenzie.br/jspui/handle/tede/2070 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=29 September 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210929160021/http://tede.mackenzie.br/jspui/handle/tede/2070 |url-status=live }}Ferreira, João Carlos Vicente; [http://www.itcg.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/Produtos_DGEO/Divisas_Municipais/Origens_Significados_nomes_municipios_pr.pdf Municípios paranaenses : origens e significados de seus nomes] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141222203107/http://www.itcg.pr.gov.br/arquivos/File/Produtos_DGEO/Divisas_Municipais/Origens_Significados_nomes_municipios_pr.pdf |date=22 December 2014 }}. Curitiba : Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, 2006; p. 229. Other famous Brazilians who descend from American immigrants are the former Chief Justice of Brazil Ellen Gracie Northfleet, first woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court; Warwick Estevam Kerr, a geneticist, agricultural engineer, entomologist, professor and scientific leader, notable for his discoveries in the genetics and sex determination of bees and the singer Rita Lee Jones, dubbed "the mother of Brazilian rock'n'roll".

File:21ª_Festa_do_Imigrante_(27001687783).jpg

{{Main|Arab Brazilians}}

Brazil has the largest Lebanese and Syrian population outside the Levant region, Christians in the great majority.{{cite web|url=http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/jul/11/20050711-092503-1255r/?page=all|title=Arab roots grow deep in Brazil's rich melting pot|work=Washington Times|access-date=17 April 2016|archive-date=23 April 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173610/https://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2005/jul/11/20050711-092503-1255r/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/arabes/origem-e-destino-dos-imigrantes|title=Origem e destino dos imigrantes do Levante|publisher=ibge|access-date=11 April 2016|archive-date=3 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303182057/http://brasil500anos.ibge.gov.br/territorio-brasileiro-e-povoamento/arabes/origem-e-destino-dos-imigrantes|url-status=live}} Lebanese and Syrians make up some of the largest Asian communities in the country.{{cite web|last1=Petruccelli|first1=Jose Luis|last2=Saboia|first2=Ana Lucia|title=Caracteristicas Etnico-raciais da Populacao Classificacoes e identidades|url=https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv63405.pdf|access-date=11 November 2021|website=IBGE|page=53|quote=descendentes e os asiáticos – japoneses, chineses, coreanos, libaneses, sírios, entre outros|archive-date=10 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160610162017/https://biblioteca.ibge.gov.br/visualizacao/livros/liv63405.pdf|url-status=live}}

There were many causes for Levantines to leave their homelands in the Ottoman Empire; overpopulation in Lebanon, conscription in Lebanon and Syria, and religious persecution by the Ottoman Turks.

{{Main|History of the Jews in Brazil}}

File:Sinagoga_Kahal_zur_Israel,_Fachada.JPG in the Americas, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, located in Recife]]

File:Sinagoga Beth El, São Paulo 1.JPG

Brazil is also home to one of the top 10 largest Jewish diasporas on Earth, most of them of Ashkenazi background but also Sephardi Jews included. Brazil figures on the diasporas list together with Argentina, and São Paulo has one of the largest Jewish populations by urban area on the planet. Ashkenazi Jews first arrived during Imperial times, when the liberal second emperor of Brazil welcomed a few thousands of families facing persecution in Europe during the 1870s and 1880s. Two heavier influxes took place during the 20th century. The earliest right after the Great War and the second inrush between the 1930s and 1950s.

Anusim or Portuguese and Dutch Marrano Crypto Jews can be found in every one of the 5 geographical regions, but are most common in the Northeast, with Pernambuco having one of the largest Converso populations due to colonial history. Brazil has the oldest synagogue in the Americas founded during Dutch Brazil rule, Kahal Zur Israel Synagogue, located in Recife. Erected in 1636, its foundations have been recently rediscovered, and the 20th-century buildings on the site have been altered to resemble a 17th-century Dutch synagogue. There is now a museum on the site praising it as one of the oldest synagogues in the world. After the Dutch defeat, part of those Jews moved to North America, settling in New Amsterdam, Dutch colony that would become today's New York. They founded in New Amsterdam the oldest Jewish congregation in the US, the Congregation Shearith Israel.

The capital of São Paulo together with the satellite city of Campinas in the metropolitan area has the greatest number of Jews in the country, followed by Rio de Janeiro capital and Porto Alegre, the capital of Rio Grande do Sul. Other state capitals in the nation that figure among the largest Jewish communities are Curitiba in Paraná,{{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/|title=Censo Demográfico Brasileiro de 2000|year=2000|access-date=15 January 2014|archive-date=22 October 2009|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091022032339/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.jewishpress.com/news/dozens-of-brazilian-olim-arrive-in-time-for-israels-purim-carnivals/2016/03/14/|title=Dozens of Brazilian Olim Arrive in Time for Israel's Purim Carnivals - The Jewish Press - David Israel - 5 Adar II 5776 – March 14, 2016 - JewishPress.com|first=David|last=Israel|website=Jewishpress.com|access-date=20 April 2016|archive-date=19 April 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160419175056/http://www.jewishpress.com/news/dozens-of-brazilian-olim-arrive-in-time-for-israels-purim-carnivals/2016/03/14/|url-status=live}} Belo Horizonte in Minas Gerais,{{cite web|url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas_da_populacao/tabelas_pdf/tab3.pdf|date=8 November 2011|title=Censo Demográfi co 2010 Características da população e dos domicílios Resultados do universo|access-date=12 July 2014|archive-date=13 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121113225317/http://www.ibge.gov.br/english/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/caracteristicas_da_populacao/tabelas_pdf/tab3.pdf|url-status=live}} Recife, the national capital Brasília in the Federal District,{{cite web|url=http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl.asp?c=2094&z=cd&o=7&i=P|title=Tabela 2094: População residente por cor ou raça e religião|website=Sidra.ibge.gov.br|access-date=20 April 2016|archive-date=23 March 2015|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150323020023/http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl.asp?c=2094&i=P&nome=on&qtu8=137&qtu14=3¬arodape=on&tab=2094&opn8=0&opn14=0&unit=0&pov=3&poc133=2&OpcTipoNivt=1&opn1=2&nivt=0&orc86=3&orp=5&qtu3=27&qtu13=47&opv=1&poc86=1&opc133=1&pop=1&opn2=0&opn15=0&orv=2&orc133=4&qtu2=5&qtu15=3&sev=93&sev=1000093&opc86=1&sec133=95263&sec133=100430&sec133=2803&sec133=95277&sec133=95264&sec133=100403&sec133=100404&sec133=100405&sec133=99741&sec133=100406&sec133=100407&sec133=99743&sec133=100408&sec133=95265&sec133=100409&sec133=99746&sec133=100410&sec133=100411&sec133=99745&sec133=100412&sec133=100413&sec133=100414&sec133=100415&sec133=12881&sec133=12882&sec133=99748&sec133=100416&sec133=100417&sec133=100418&sec133=100419&sec133=95266&sec133=121096&sec133=12891&sec133=100420&sec133=100421&sec133=100422&sec133=100423&sec133=2824&sec133=95267&sec133=2826&sec133=2827&sec133=2829&sec133=2828&sec133=12883&sec133=100424&sec133=100425&sec133=95269&sec133=100427&sec133=100428&sec133=100429&sec133=95270&sec133=100426&sec133=95273&sec133=95274&sec133=95275&sec133=2836&sec133=12884&sec133=12885&sec133=12886&sec133=12887&sec133=12888&sec133=12889&sec133=95276&sec133=12890&sec133=2837&opp=f1&opn3=0&qtu6=5565&opn13=0&sec86=0&ascendente=on&sep=38559&orn=1&qtu7=36&pon=2&qtu9=558&opn6=3&digt6=Fortaleza&OpcCara=44&proc=1&qtu1=1&opn9=0&cabec=on&opn7=0&decm=99|url-status=live}} Belém, Manaus and Florianópolis.{{cite thesis |last1=Schucman |first1=Lia Vainer |title=Produção de sentidos e a construção da identidade judaica em Florianópolis |date=2006 |url=http://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/89230 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=23 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230423173545/https://repositorio.ufsc.br/xmlui/handle/123456789/89230 |url-status=live }}{{cite web|url=https://www.ufrgs.br/biblioestudosetnicos/santa-catarina/judeus/|title=Judeus em SC. Guia Bibliográfico Estudos sobre grupos étnicos no Sul do Brasil|publisher=Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul|access-date=18 May 2016|date=24 April 2014|archive-date=25 June 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160625172018/https://www.ufrgs.br/biblioestudosetnicos/santa-catarina/judeus/|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://praiadexangrila.com.br/judeus-na-ilha-de-santa-catarinabrasile-a-acao-dos-jesuitas/|title=Jacques Schweidson – A saga judaica no Desterro|publisher=praiadexangrila.com.br and izidoroazevedo.blogspot.com.br|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=31 May 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160531061753/http://praiadexangrila.com.br/judeus-na-ilha-de-santa-catarinabrasile-a-acao-dos-jesuitas/|url-status=dead}}{{cite web|url=http://estudosjudaicos.blogspot.com.br/2008/01/produo-de-sentidos-e-construo-da.html?m=1|title=Identidade Judaica em Florianópolis|publisher=estudosjudaicos.blogspot.com.br|access-date=18 May 2016|archive-date=1 July 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160701234112/http://estudosjudaicos.blogspot.com.br/2008/01/produo-de-sentidos-e-construo-da.html?m=1|url-status=live}}

In August 2004, the mayor of São Paulo, a metropolis home to 77,000 Jews, declared her city a sister city with Tel Aviv. Mayor Marta Smith Suplicy said the new status would strengthen ties between both Brazilians and Israelis. Suplicy, who had recently married a Jew, added that the new status would be a kickoff for urban, cultural, scientific, tourist and economic programs.

The Anti-Defamation League and other Israeli/Jewish papers and surveys placed Brazil among the least anti-Semitic nations in the Americas and Western Europe, which subsequently means among the least anti-semitic ones on the planet.{{cite web |url=http://www.jspacenews.com/10-most-jewish-friendly-countries-world/ |title=10 Most Jewish-Friendly Countries in the World |access-date=20 April 2016 |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160420192532/http://www.jspacenews.com/10-most-jewish-friendly-countries-world/ |archive-date=20 April 2016}}{{cite web|url=http://global100.adl.org/#map|title=The ADL Global 100:Index of Antisemitism|website=Global100.adl.org|access-date=19 August 2017}} And Jewish Brazilian personalities stated in a jocose form that the only threat they face is assimilation by marriage with Europeans, Levantine Arabs and East Asians{{Citation needed|date=August 2023}}. Intermarriage between Jews and non-Jewish descendants might have an even higher rate than in the US.

{{Main|Greek Brazilians}}

Greek immigration to Brazil can be divided into three periods. The first Greek families arrived during the monarchical period in the 19th century, followed by two larger influxes: the period right after the break of the Great War in 1914 and prolonged until the 1930s, and the final one right after WW2, with most Greeks settling in São Paulo.{{cite web|url=http://www.miniweb.com.br/cidadania/personalidades/imigrantes11.html|title=Imigração Grega no Brasil|access-date=10 April 2016|archive-date=13 March 2010|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100313204247/http://www.miniweb.com.br/cidadania/personalidades/imigrantes11.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://umabrasileiranagrecia.com/2013/11/a-imigracao-grega-no-brasil.html|title=A Imigração Grega no Brasil pode ser dividida em três fases|access-date=10 April 2016|date=14 November 2013|archive-date=6 October 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161006052841/http://umabrasileiranagrecia.com/2013/11/a-imigracao-grega-no-brasil.html|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/127485|title=MEMÓRIAS, CONTRIBUIÇÕES E PERMANÊNCIAS DA COLÔNIA GREGA EM FLORIANÓPOLIS|date=18 December 2014 |access-date=5 October 2016|archive-date=27 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200527203026/https://repositorio.ufsc.br/handle/123456789/127485|url-status=live |last=Guarise |first=Katcipia}}

Whites constitute the majority of Brazil's population regarding the total numbers within a single racial group.{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html|title=CIA data from The World Factbook's Field Listing :: Ethnic groups and Field Listing :: Population|publisher=cia.gov|access-date=9 May 2011|archive-date=16 November 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181116044500/https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/fields/2075.html|url-status=dead}}{{cite journal |last1=Fernández |first1=Francisco Lizcano |title=Composición Étnica de las Tres Áreas Culturales del Continente Americano al Comienzo del Siglo XXI |trans-title=Ethnic Composition of the Three Cultural Areas of the American Continent at the Beginning of the 21st Century |language=es |journal=Convergencia Revista de Ciencias Sociales |date=1 May 2005 |issue=38 |url=https://convergencia.uaemex.mx/article/view/1461 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=1 June 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200601145428/https://convergencia.uaemex.mx/article/view/1461 |url-status=live}}

Whites dominate Brazilian arts, business and science. Overall, whites constitute 86.3% of the 1% richest population of Brazil {{As of|2007|lc=y}}.{{cite web|url=http://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2008/09/24/ult5772u866.jhtm|title=Em 2007, trabalhadores brancos ganharam quase duas vezes mais que os negros, diz IBGE – 24/09/2008 – UOL Notícias – Cotidiano|website=noticias.uol.com.br|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-date=4 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304100023/http://noticias.uol.com.br/cotidiano/2008/09/24/ult5772u866.jhtm|url-status=live}} The majority of representatives of the 20 largest companies in Brazil are white. These companies include Petrobrás, Oi telecommunications, Ambev and Gerdau and Braskem groups, and according to the Valor 1000 ranking from 2014, 95% of these representatives declare themselves as white, 5% declare themselves as brown and none declared as blacks or yellow (ethnic East Asian).{{cite web|url=http://www.valor.com.br/valor1000/2015|title=Valor1000 – Valor Econômico|website=Valor.com.br|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-date=30 January 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130181128/http://www.valor.com.br/valor1000/2015|url-status=live}}

The most successful Brazilian entrepreneurs have historically been white. Jorge Paulo Lemann, an investor and the child of Swiss immigrants, is ranked as the 19th richest person in the world by Forbes, with an estimated net worth of US$38.7 billion. Eduardo Saverin is the Co-founder of Facebook, one of the world's wealthiest companies, and most powerful social media platforms, was born in São Paulo, Brazil.

Whites dominate Brazilian fashion. Gisele Bündchen has been the highest paid model in the world for 10 years. With a reported net worth of $290 million, she is widely recognized as the poster child for Brazilian fashion models, being the first 'breakthrough' model from Brazil. Alessandra Ambrosio is most famous for being a Victoria's Secret and 'PINK' model. Earning an estimated $6.6 million per annum. Alexandre Herchcovitch is a well-known fashion designer in the Paris, London, New York and Tokyo circuits.

Xuxa Meneghel, a television presenter, film actress, singer and successful businesswoman born in Rio Grande do Sul, has the highest net worth of any Brazilian female entertainer, estimated at US$350 million.{{cite web|url=http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/cultura/detalhe/15_milhoes_por_quatro_concertos.html|title=Fortuna de Xuxa avaliada em 292 milhões de euros|website=Cmjornal.xl.pt|access-date=14 May 2015|archive-date=16 May 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150516215115/http://www.cmjornal.xl.pt/cultura/detalhe/15_milhoes_por_quatro_concertos.html|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://gente.ig.com.br/xuxa/#topoBiografia|title=Biografia|date=11 November 2014|work=IG|access-date=11 November 2014|archive-date=9 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141009215649/http://gente.ig.com.br/xuxa/#topoBiografia|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=http://celebridades.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2013/03/27/xuxa-completa-50-anos-nesta-quarta-veja-altos-e-baixos-da-vida-da-rainha.htm|title=Bilionária aos 50|website=Celebridades.uol.com.br|date=9 April 2012|access-date=19 May 2016|archive-date=18 July 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140718061138/http://celebridades.uol.com.br/noticias/redacao/2013/03/27/xuxa-completa-50-anos-nesta-quarta-veja-altos-e-baixos-da-vida-da-rainha.htm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1992-04-19-ca-728-story.html|title=Cover Story: Xuxa's Very Big Neighborhood : Brazil's glittery godmother of children's TV has conquered Latin America, invaded Europe and set her sights on the U.S. market|author=Jeb Blount|date=19 April 1992|work=Los Angeles Times|access-date=19 May 2016|archive-date=26 December 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141226132514/http://articles.latimes.com/1992-04-19/entertainment/ca-728_1_latin-america|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2011/12/29/have-you-heard-of-brazilian-country-music-phenomenon-michel-telo-yet-you-will/|title=Have You Heard of Brazilian Country Music Phenomenon Michel Telo Yet? You Will.|work=Anderson Antunes|access-date=22 August 2013|publisher=Forbes|archive-date=26 August 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130826205252/http://www.forbes.com/sites/andersonantunes/2011/12/29/have-you-heard-of-brazilian-country-music-phenomenon-michel-telo-yet-you-will/|url-status=live}}

Whites also dominate the sciences and academics. According to a Folha University Ranking, among the rectors and vice-chancellors of the 25 top universities, 89.8% are white; 8.2% are brown; 2% are black; none are yellow (East Asian).

In the world of Brazilian sports, some of the most successful Brazilian athletes have been white. Ayrton Senna was among the most dominant and successful Formula One drivers of the modern era and is considered by many as the greatest racing driver of all time.{{cite web|url=http://vimeo.com/89217406|title=Alonso, Massa, Schumacher say Senna is "greatest" on Top Gear|access-date=10 February 2016|archive-date=7 July 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150707105324/https://vimeo.com/89217406|url-status=live}}{{cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20324109|title=Murray Walker lists Senna as number one|access-date=13 February 2018|archive-date=17 October 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151017070641/http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/formula1/20324109|url-status=live}} Robert Scheidt is one of the most successful sailors at Olympic Games{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/medal_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&group_by=athlete_id&medal_cmp=ge&medal_num=4&medal=&edition_min=&edition_max=&country_id=&sport_id=SAI&event_class=&event_name_id=&is_team_member=&gender=&age_min=0&age_max=99&order_by=Total|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801155148/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/medal_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&group_by=athlete_id&medal_cmp=ge&medal_num=4&medal=&edition_min=&edition_max=&country_id=&sport_id=SAI&event_class=&event_name_id=&is_team_member=&gender=&age_min=0&age_max=99&order_by=Total|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 August 2018|title=Medal Finder - Olympics at Sports-Reference.com|website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com}} and one of the most successful Brazilian Olympic athletes.{{cite web|url=https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/medal_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&group_by=athlete_id&medal_cmp=ge&medal_num=4&medal=&edition_min=&edition_max=&country_id=BRA&sport_id=&event_class=&is_team_member=&gender=&age_min=0&age_max=99&order_by=Total|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180801155144/https://www.sports-reference.com/olympics/friv/medal_finder.cgi?request=1&sum=1&group_by=athlete_id&medal_cmp=ge&medal_num=4&medal=&edition_min=&edition_max=&country_id=BRA&sport_id=&event_class=&is_team_member=&gender=&age_min=0&age_max=99&order_by=Total|url-status=dead|archive-date=1 August 2018|title=Medal Finder - Olympics at Sports-Reference.com|website=Olympics at Sports-Reference.com}} Zico, the world's best football player of the late 1970s and early 80s.{{cite web|url=https://www.fifa.com/news/y=2011/m=12/news=kings-the-free-kick-1551015.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150627075610/http://www.fifa.com/news/y=2011/m=12/news=kings-the-free-kick-1551015.html|url-status=dead|archive-date=27 June 2015|title=Kings of the free-kick|last=FIFA.com|date=2 December 2011|website=Fifa.com|access-date=19 August 2017}}

Others include, Gustavo Kuerten, the only Brazilians tennis player to be ranked nr 1,{{cite news|title=Tennis; A Victorious Kuerten Clinches No. 1|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/04/sports/tennis-a-victorious-kuerten-clinches-no-1.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|date=4 December 2000|access-date=6 September 2012|first=Christopher|last=Clarey|newspaper=The New York Times|quotation=[Kuerten] is the first non-American to finish on top since the Swede Stefan Edberg in 1991.|archive-date=16 August 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170816111445/http://www.nytimes.com/2000/12/04/sports/tennis-a-victorious-kuerten-clinches-no-1.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm|url-status=live}}{{cite web|url=http://www.atpworldtour.com/~/media/B0EA4F9A31DA436AAC8F00EF5F55F774.ashx|title=2000 ATP Tour Year End Rankings|access-date=10 January 2011|work=Atpworldtour.com|publisher=Association of Tennis Professionals|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100611093447/http://www.atpworldtour.com/~/media/B0EA4F9A31DA436AAC8F00EF5F55F774.ashx|archive-date=11 June 2010}} César Cielo the most successful Brazilian swimmer in history, having obtained three Olympic medals. Oscar Schmidt, who was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2013.{{cite web|url=https://www.espn.com/nba/halloffame13/story/_/id/9648826/130908-oscar-schmidt-ready-hall-fame-induction|title=Basketball Hall of Fame 2013|website=Espn.go.com|date=7 September 2013|access-date=19 May 2016|archive-date=24 March 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160324070821/http://espn.go.com/nba/halloffame13/story/_/id/9648826/130908-oscar-schmidt-ready-hall-fame-induction|url-status=live}} The Brazil men's national volleyball team is the most successful volleyball team in the world and is mostly white (Gustavo Endres, Giba, André Heller, Murilo Endres), and many others.

Among women Maria Esther Bueno is the most successful Brazilian tennis player at the Grand Slam tournaments. She won seven single titles (four wins at the US Open and three at Wimbledon) and twelve doubles titles (five at Wimbledon, four at the US Open, two in the Roland Garros, including a mixed doubles, and once at the Australian Open).{{cite book|last=Robertson|first=Max|title=The Encyclopedia of Tennis|year=1974|publisher=Allen & Unwin|location=London|isbn=9780047960420|page=213}}{{cite book|last=Collins|first=Bud|title=The Bud Collins History of Tennis|year=2010|publisher=New Chapter Press|location=[New York]|isbn=978-0942257700|page=555|edition=2nd}}

File:Municípios do Brasil - Grupos étnico-raciais predominantes.png and Southeast (2010 census)]]

File:Brancos no Brasil.png in 2009]]

The Brazilian states with the highest percentages of whites are the three located in the South of the country: Santa Catarina, Rio Grande do Sul and Paraná. These states, along with São Paulo, received an important influx of European immigrants in the period of the Great Immigration (1876–1914).

1. Rio Grande do Sul: 78.4% white
2. Santa Catarina: 76.3%
3. Paraná: 64.6%
4. São Paulo: 57.8%
5. Mato Grosso do Sul: 42.4%
6. Rio de Janeiro: 42%
7. Minas Gerais: 41.6%
8. Federal District 40%
9. Espírito Santo: 38.6%
10. Goiás: 36.2%.{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}

The Brazilian states with the lowest percentages of whites are located in the North, where there is a strong Amerindian influence in the population's racial composition, and in part of the Northeast, notably in Bahia and Maranhão, where African influence is stronger.{{cite web |url=http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2006/sintese/tab1_2.pdf |title=PNAD |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222015251/http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/trabalhoerendimento/pnad2006/sintese/tab1_2.pdf |archive-date=22 February 2012}}

1. Amapá: 21.4% white
2. Roraima: 20.7%
3. Bahia: 19.6%
4. Pará: 19.3%
5. Amazonas: 18.4%

:Source: IBGE 2022{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}

States with high absolute numbers:

1. São Paulo: 25,661,895 whites
2. Rio Grande do Sul: 8,534,229
3. Minas Gerais: 8,437,697
4. Paraná: 7,389,932
5. Rio de Janeiro: 6,739,901
6. Santa Catarina: 5,805,552
7. Pernambuco: 3,043,916
8. Bahia: 2,772,837
9. Goiás: 2,557,454
10. Ceará: 2,456,214
11. Espírito Santo: 1,479,275
12. Mato Grosso: 1,181,590
13. Mato Grosso do Sul: 1,168,407
14. Federal District: 1,126,334{{Cite web |title=Tabela 9605: População residente, por cor ou raça, nos Censos Demográficos |url=https://sidra.ibge.gov.br/tabela/9605#resultado |access-date=2024-01-11 |website=sidra.ibge.gov.br}}

• Excludes states created after 1940.

File:Gramado_Sightseeing_(4654146147).jpg]]

File:Neve_em_Canela.jpg]]

File:Cambirela,_morro,_neve,_vista_do_morro_da_cruz_-_Daniel_Queiroz_-_23julho2013-IMG_6746.jpg]]

In a list of the 144 Brazilian towns with the highest percentages of whites, all the cities were located in two states: Rio Grande do Sul or Santa Catarina. All these towns are settled predominantly by Brazilians of German or Italian descent and are usually very small.

In the 19th century, many German and Italian immigrants were attracted by the Brazilian government to populate inhospitable areas in the South of the country. Slavery was banned in these settlements and many of these areas remained settled exclusively by European immigrants and their descendants.{{cite journal |url=http://www.revistas.usp.br/revusp/article/view/33192 |title=COLONIZAÇÃO, IMIGRAÇÃO E A QUESTÃO RACIAL NO BRASIL |journal=Revista USP |year=2002 |doi=10.11606/issn.2316-9036.v0i53p117-149 |access-date=16 May 2020 |last1=Seyferth |first1=Giralda |issue=53 |pages=117–149 |doi-access=free |archive-date=29 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200529151304/http://www.revistas.usp.br/revusp/article/view/33192 |url-status=live }}

Until quite recently, many of these towns have been relatively isolated areas, and German or Italian cultural traditions are still very strong, with many of their inhabitants being able to speak German or Italian, especially in the more rural areas.{{Cite web |url=https://theworldelsewhere.com/2016/03/15/germans-and-italians-in-the-highlands-of-brazils-far-south/ |title=Germans and Italians in the highlands of Brazil's far south |date=15 March 2016 |access-date=16 May 2020 |archive-date=28 May 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200528053136/https://theworldelsewhere.com/2016/03/15/germans-and-italians-in-the-highlands-of-brazils-far-south/ |url-status=live }}

The Brazilian towns with the largest percentages of whites are the following:{{cite web |url=http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl1.asp?z=cd&o=7&i=P |title=Sistema IBGE de Recuperação Automática – SIDRA |publisher=Sidra.ibge.gov.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120805130623/http://www.sidra.ibge.gov.br/bda/tabela/protabl1.asp?z=cd&o=7&i=P |archive-date=5 August 2012}}

1. Montauri (Rio Grande do Sul): 100% White (1,615 inhabitants)
2. Leoberto Leal (Santa Catarina): 99.82% (3,348 inhabitants)
3. Pedras Grandes (Santa Catarina): 99.81% (4,849 inhabitants)
4. Capitão (Rio Grande do Sul): 99.77% (2,751 inhabitants)
5. Santa Tereza (Rio Grande do Sul): 99.69% (1,604 inhabitants)
6. Cunhataí (Santa Catarina): 99.67% (1,740 inhabitants)
7. São Martinho (Santa Catarina): 99.64% (3,221 inhabitants)
8. Guabiju (Rio Grande do Sul): 99.62% (1,775 inhabitants)

The Brazilian towns with the lowest percentages of whites are located in Northern and Northeastern Brazil and are also small.

1. Nossa Senhora das Dores (Sergipe): 0.71% White (23,817 inhabitants, 98.16% "Multiracial")
2. Santo Inácio do Piauí (Piauí): 2.25% (3,523 inhabitants, 96.90% "Multiracial")
3. Uiramutã (Roraima): 2.33% (6,430 inhabitants, 74.41% Amerindian)
4. Ipixuna (Amazonas): 2.35% (17,258 inhabitants, 80.46% "Multiracial")
5. Caapiranga (Amazonas): 2.97% (9,996 inhabitants, 81.68% "Multiracial")
6. Fonte Boa (Amazonas): 3.01% (37,595 inhabitants, 86.46% "Multiracial")
7. Santa Isabel do Rio Negro (Amazonas): 3.15% (16,622 inhabitants, 59.62% "brown", 34.75% Amerindian)
8. Serrano do Maranhão (Maranhão): 3.30% (5,547 inhabitants, 69.08% "Multiracial", 24.97% Black)

{{Summarize section|date=September 2017}}

{{wide image|Geographic_ancestry_distribution_of_Brazil.png|900px|In Brazil, European genetic ancestry reaches its maximum in the central area of the Southern Region (90-99.99%) and its minimum in the northern area of the Northern Region (40-50%).{{cite journal |last1=Ruiz-Linares |first1=Andrés |last2=Adhikari |first2=Kaustubh |last3=Acuña-Alonzo |first3=Victor |last4=Quinto-Sanchez |first4=Mirsha |last5=Jaramillo |first5=Claudia |last6=Arias |first6=William |last7=Fuentes |first7=Macarena |last8=Pizarro |first8=María |last9=Everardo |first9=Paola |last10=de Avila |first10=Francisco |last11=Gómez-Valdés |first11=Jorge |last12=León-Mimila |first12=Paola |last13=Hunemeier |first13=Tábita |last14=Ramallo |first14=Virginia |last15=Silva de Cerqueira |first15=Caio C. |last16=Burley |first16=Mari-Wyn |last17=Konca |first17=Esra |last18=de Oliveira |first18=Marcelo Zagonel |last19=Veronez |first19=Mauricio Roberto |last20=Rubio-Codina |first20=Marta |last21=Attanasio |first21=Orazio |last22=Gibbon |first22=Sahra |last23=Ray |first23=Nicolas |last24=Gallo |first24=Carla |last25=Poletti |first25=Giovanni |last26=Rosique |first26=Javier |last27=Schuler-Faccini |first27=Lavinia |last28=Salzano |first28=Francisco M. |last29=Bortolini |first29=Maria-Cátira |last30=Canizales-Quinteros |first30=Samuel |last31=Rothhammer |first31=Francisco |last32=Bedoya |first32=Gabriel |last33=Balding |first33=David |last34=Gonzalez-José |first34=Rolando |title=Admixture in Latin America: Geographic Structure, Phenotypic Diversity and Self-Perception of Ancestry Based on 7,342 Individuals |journal=PLOS Genetics |date=25 September 2014 |volume=10 |issue=9 |pages=e1004572 |doi=10.1371/journal.pgen.1004572 |pmid=25254375 |pmc=4177621 |s2cid=11046719 |doi-access=free }}}}

The genes can reveal from what part of the world the oldest ancestors of the paternal and maternal line of a person came from. The mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) is present in all human beings and passed down through the maternal line, i.e. the mother of a mother of a mother etc. The Y chromosome is present only in males and passed down through the paternal line, i.e., the father of a father of a father etc. The mitochondrial DNA and Y chromosome suffer only minor mutations through centuries, thus can be used to establish the paternal line in males (because only males have the Y chromosome) and the maternal line in both males and females.

According to a genetic study about Brazilians (based upon about 200 samples), on the paternal side, 98% of the white Brazilian Y Chromosome comes from a European male ancestor, only 2% from an African ancestor and there is a complete absence of Amerindian contributions. On the maternal side, 39% have European Mitochondrial DNA, 33% Amerindian and 28% African female ancestry. This, considering the facts that the slave trade was effectively suppressed in 1850, and that the Amerindian population had been reduced to small numbers even earlier, shows that at least 61% of white Brazilians had at least one ancestor living in Brazil before the beginning of the Great Immigration. This analysis, however, only shows a small fraction of a person's ancestry (the Y Chromosome comes from a single male ancestor and the mtDNA from a single female ancestor, while the contributions of the many other ancestors is not specified).{{cite web|url=http://web.educom.pt/p-pmndn/genes_cabral.htm|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070829035149/http://web.educom.pt/p-pmndn/genes_cabral.htm|url-status=dead|archive-date=29 August 2007|title=Os Genes de Cabral|date=29 August 2007|access-date=11 January 2018}}

According to another genetic research (based upon about 200 samples again) over 75% of caucasians from North, Northeast and Southeast Brazil would have over 10% Sub-Saharan African genes, and that this would also be the case with Southern Brazil for 49% of the caucasian population. According to this study, in all United States 11% of Caucasians have over 10% African genes. Thus, 86% of Brazilians would have at least 10% of genes that came from Africa. The researchers however were cautious about its conclusions: "Obviously these estimates were made by extrapolation of experimental results with relatively small samples and, therefore, their confidence limits are very ample". A new autosomal study from 2011, also led by Sérgio Pena, but with nearly 1000 samples this time, from all over the country, shows that in most Brazilian regions most Brazilians "whites" are less than 10% African in ancestry, and it also shows that the "pardos" are predominantly European in ancestry, the European ancestry being therefore the main component in the Brazilian population, in spite of a very high degree of African ancestry and significant Native American contribution. Other autosomal studies (see some of them below) show a European predominance in the Brazilian population.

Another genetic research suggested that the white Brazilian population is not genetically homogenous, as its genomic ancestry varies in different regions. Samples of white males from Rio Grande do Sul have shown significant differences between whites of different localities of state. In a sample from the town of Veranópolis, heavily settled by people of Italian descent, the results from the maternal and paternal sides showed almost complete European ancestry. On the other hand, a sample of whites from several other regions of Rio Grande do Sul showed significant fractions of Native American (36%) and African (16%) mtDNA haplogroups.{{cite journal |last1=Marrero |first1=Andrea Rita |last2=Pereira Das Neves Leite |first2=Fábio |last3=De Almeida Carvalho |first3=Bianca |last4=Martins Peres |first4=Leandro |last5=Kommers |first5=Trícia Cristine |last6=Mânica Da Cruz |first6=Ivana |last7=Salzano |first7=Francisco Mauro |last8=Ruiz-Linares |first8=Andres |last9=Araújo Da Silva Júnior |first9=Wilson |last10=Cátira Bortolini |first10=Maria |title=Heterogeneity of the genome ancestry of individuals classified as White in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=July 2005 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=496–506 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.20404 |pmid=15981186 |s2cid=6465043 }}

Another study (based on blood polymorphisms, from 1981) carried out in one thousand individuals from Porto Alegre city, Southern Brazil, and 760 from Natal city, Northeastern Brazil, found whites of Porto Alegre had 8% of African alleles and in Natal the ancestry of the samples total was characterized as 58% white, 25% black, and 17% Amerindian. This study found that persons identified as white or Pardo in Natal have similar ancestries, a dominant European ancestry, while persons identified as white in Porto Alegre have an overwhelming majority of European ancestry.{{Citation |title=Blood polymorphisms and racial admixture in two Brazilian populations |last1=Helena |first1=M. |first2=L. P. |last2=Franco |first3=Tania A. |last3=Weimer |first4=F. M. |last4=Salzano |year=1981 |journal=American Journal of Physical Anthropology |volume=58 |issue=2 |pages=127–132 |doi=10.1002/ajpa.1330580204 |pmid=7114199}}

According to an autosomal DNA genetic study from 2011, both "whites" and "pardos" from Fortaleza have a predominantly degree of European ancestry (>70%), with minor but important African and Native American contributions. "Whites" and "pardos" from Belém and Ilhéus also were found to be pred. European in ancestry, with minor Native American and African contributions.

According to another study, autosomal DNA study (see table), those who identified as whites in Rio de Janeiro turned out to have 86.4%{{snd}} and self identified pardos 68.1%{{snd}} European ancestry on average. Blacks were found out to have on average 41.8% European ancestry.

According to another study (from 1965, and based on blood groups and electrophoretic markers) carried out on whites of Northeastern Brazilian origin living in São Paulo the ancestries would be 70% European, 18% African and 12% Amerindian admixture.

Another study (autosomal DNA study, from 2010) found out that European ancestry predominates in the Brazilian population as a whole ("whites", "pardos" and "blacks" altogether). European ancestry is dominant throughout Brazil at nearly 80%, except for the Southern part of Brazil, where the European heritage reaches 90%. "A new portrayal of each ethnicity contribution to the DNA of Brazilians, obtained with samples from the five regions of the country, has indicated that, on average, European ancestors are responsible for nearly 80% of the genetic heritage of the population. The variation between the regions is small, with the possible exception of the South, where the European contribution reaches nearly 90%. The results, published by the scientific magazine 'American Journal of Human Biology' by a team of the Catholic University of Brasília, show that, in Brazil, physical indicators such as skin colour, colour of the eyes and colour of the hair have little to do with the genetic ancestry of each person, which has been shown in previous studies"(regardless of census classification).{{cite web | url=http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u633465.shtml | archive-url=http://arquivo.pt/wayback/20160521090226/http://www1.folha.uol.com.br/folha/ciencia/ult306u633465.shtml | url-status=dead | archive-date=21 May 2016 | title=Arquivo.pt }} "Ancestry informative SNPs can be useful to estimate individual and population biogeographical ancestry. Brazilian population is characterized by a genetic background of three parental populations (European, African, and Brazilian Native Amerindians) with a wide degree and diverse patterns of admixture. In this work we analyzed the information content of 28 ancestry-informative SNPs into multiplexed panels using three parental population sources (African, Amerindian, and European) to infer the genetic admixture in an urban sample of the five Brazilian geopolitical regions. The SNPs assigned apart the parental populations from each other and thus can be applied for ancestry estimation in a three hybrid admixed population. Data was used to infer genetic ancestry in Brazilians with an admixture model. Pairwise estimates of F (st) among the five Brazilian geopolitical regions suggested little genetic differentiation only between the South and the remaining regions. Estimates of ancestry results are consistent with the heterogeneous genetic profile of Brazilian population, with a major contribution of European ancestry (0.771) followed by African (0.143) and Amerindian contributions (0.085). The described multiplexed SNP panels can be useful tool for bioanthropological studies but it can be mainly valuable to control for spurious results in genetic association studies in admixed populations."{{cite journal |last1=Lins |first1=Tulio C. |last2=Vieira |first2=Rodrigo G. |last3=Abreu |first3=Breno S. |last4=Grattapaglia |first4=Dario |last5=Pereira |first5=Rinaldo W. |title=Genetic composition of Brazilian population samples based on a set of twenty-eight ancestry informative SNPs |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=2009 |volume=22 |issue=2 |pages=187–92 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.20976 |pmid=19639555 |s2cid=205301927 |url=https://repositorio.ucb.br:9443/jspui/handle/123456789/7489 |access-date=13 September 2020 |archive-date=20 October 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201020004142/https://repositorio.ucb.br:9443/jspui/handle/123456789/7489 |url-status=live |doi-access=free }} The samples came from free of charge paternity test takers, thus as the researchers made it explicit: "the paternity tests were free of charge, the population samples involved people of variable socioeconomic strata, although likely to be leaning slightly towards the ‘'pardo'’ group". According to it the total European, African and Native American contributions to the Brazilian population are:

In support of the dominant European heritage of Brazil, according to another autosomal DNA study (from 2009) conducted on a school in the poor periphery of Rio de Janeiro the "pardos" there were found to be on average over 80% European, and the "whites" (who thought of themselves as "very mixed") were found out to carry very little Amerindian or African admixtures. "The results of the tests of genomic ancestry are quite different from the self made estimates of European ancestry", say the researchers. In general, the test results showed that European ancestry is far more important than the students thought it would be. The "pardos" for example thought of themselves as ⅓ European, ⅓ African and ⅓ Amerindian before the tests, and yet their ancestry was determined to be at over 80% European. The "blacks" (pretos) of the periphery of Rio de Janeiro, according to this study, thought of themselves as predominantly African before the study and yet they turned out predominantly European (at 52%), the African contribution at 41% and the Native American 7%.{{cite web|url=http://www.meionews.com.br/index.php/noticias/21-estado-do-rio/4607-negros-e-pardos-do-rio-tem-mais-genes-europeus-do-que-imaginam-segundo-estudo.html |title=Negros e pardos do Rio têm mais genes europeus do que imaginam, segundo estudo |website=Meionews.com.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110706153557/http://www.meionews.com.br/index.php/noticias/21-estado-do-rio/4607-negros-e-pardos-do-rio-tem-mais-genes-europeus-do-que-imaginam-segundo-estudo.html |archive-date=6 July 2011}}{{cite web|url=http://www4.ensp.fiocruz.br/informe/anexos/ric.pdf|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240422064746/https://ensp.fiocruz.br/informe/anexos/ric.pdf|url-status=dead|archive-date=22 April 2024|title=502 Bad Gateway|date=30 December 2016|access-date=19 August 2017}} {{cite journal |last1=Santos |first1=Ricardo Ventura |last2=Fry |first2=Peter H. |last3=Monteiro |first3=Simone |last4=Maio |first4=Marcos Chor |last5=Rodrigues |first5=José Carlos |last6=Bastos-Rodrigues |first6=Luciana |last7=Pena |first7=Sérgio D. J. |title=Color, Race, and Genomic Ancestry in Brazil: Dialogues between Anthropology and Genetics |journal=Current Anthropology |date=December 2009 |volume=50 |issue=6 |pages=787–819 |doi=10.1086/644532 |pmid=20614657 |s2cid=7497968 |url=https://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/33187 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=4 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210204000428/https://www.arca.fiocruz.br/handle/icict/33187 |url-status=live }}

An autosomal study from 2013, with nearly 1300 samples from all of the Brazilian regions, found a pred. degree of European ancestry combined with African and Native American contributions, in varying degrees. 'Following an increasing North to South gradient, European ancestry was the most prevalent in all urban populations (with values up to 74%). The populations in the North consisted of a significant proportion of Native American ancestry that was about two times higher than the African contribution. Conversely, in the Northeast, Center-West and Southeast, African ancestry was the second most prevalent. At an intrapopulation level, all urban

populations were highly admixed, and most of the variation in ancestry proportions was observed between individuals within each population rather than among population'.{{cite journal |last1=Saloum de Neves Manta |first1=Fernanda |last2=Pereira |first2=Rui |last3=Vianna |first3=Romulo |last4=Rodolfo Beuttenmüller de Araújo |first4=Alfredo |last5=Leite Góes Gitaí |first5=Daniel |last6=Aparecida da Silva |first6=Dayse |last7=de Vargas Wolfgramm |first7=Eldamária |last8=da Mota Pontes |first8=Isabel |last9=Ivan Aguiar |first9=José |last10=Ozório Moraes |first10=Milton |last11=Fagundes de Carvalho |first11=Elizeu |last12=Gusmão |first12=Leonor |title=Revisiting the Genetic Ancestry of Brazilians Using Autosomal AIM-Indels |journal=PLOS ONE |date=20 September 2013 |volume=8 |issue=9 |pages=e75145 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0075145 |pmid=24073242 |pmc=3779230 |bibcode=2013PLoSO...875145S |doi-access=free }}

According to another autosomal DNA study from 2009, the Brazilian population, in all regions of the country, was also found out to be predominantly European: "all the Brazilian samples (regions) lie more closely to the European group than to the African populations or to the Mestizos from Mexico".{{cite journal |last1=de Assis Poiares |first1=Lilian |last2=de Sá Osorio |first2=Paulo |last3=Spanhol |first3=Fábio Alexandre |last4=Coltre |first4=Sidnei César |last5=Rodenbusch |first5=Rodrigo |last6=Gusmão |first6=Leonor |last7=Largura |first7=Alvaro |last8=Sandrini |first8=Fabiano |last9=da Silva |first9=Cláudia Maria Dornelles |title=Allele frequencies of 15 STRs in a representative sample of the Brazilian population |journal=Forensic Science International: Genetics |date=February 2010 |volume=4 |issue=2 |pages=e61–e63 |doi=10.1016/j.fsigen.2009.05.006 |pmid=20129458 }} According to it the total European, African and Native American contributions to the Brazilian population are:

According to another autosomal study from 2008, by the University of Brasília (UnB), European ancestry dominates in the whole of Brazil (in all regions), accounting for 65,90% of heritage of the population, followed by the African contribution (24,80%) and the Native American (9,3%).{{cite thesis |last1=Godinho |first1=Neide Maria de Oliveira |title=O impacto das migrações na constituição genética de populações latino-americanas |date=2008 |url=https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/5542 |access-date=28 November 2020 |archive-date=12 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201112044147/https://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/5542 |url-status=live }}

An autosomal study from 2011 (with nearly almost 1000 samples from all over the country, "whites", "pardos" and "blacks" included, according to their respective proportions) has also concluded that European ancestry is the predominant ancestry in Brazil, accounting for nearly 70% of the ancestry of the population: "In all regions studied, the European ancestry was predominant, with proportions ranging from 60.6% in the Northeast to 77.7% in the South". The 2011 autosomal study samples came from blood donors (the lowest classes constitute the great majority of blood donors in Brazil{{cite web |url=http://www.amigodoador.com.br/estatisticas.html |title=Profile of the Brazilian blood donor |publisher=Amigodoador.com.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120502213529/http://www.amigodoador.com.br/estatisticas.html |archive-date=2 May 2012}}), and also public health institutions personnel and health students. In all Brazilian regions European, African and Amerindian genetic markers are found in the local populations, even though the proportion of each varies from region to region and from individual to individual.{{cite journal |last1=Alves-Silva |first1=Juliana |last2=da Silva Santos |first2=Magda |last3=Guimarães |first3=Pedro E.M. |last4=Ferreira |first4=Alessandro C.S. |last5=Bandelt |first5=Hans-Jürgen |last6=Pena |first6=Sérgio D.J. |last7=Prado |first7=Vania Ferreira |title=The Ancestry of Brazilian mtDNA Lineages |journal=The American Journal of Human Genetics |date=August 2000 |volume=67 |issue=2 |pages=444–461 |doi=10.1086/303004 |pmid=10873790 |pmc=1287189 }} However most regions showed basically the same structure, a greater European contribution to the population, followed by African and Native American contributions: "Some people had the vision Brazil was a heterogeneous mosaic [...] Our study proves Brazil is a lot more integrated than some expected".{{cite web|url=http://cienciahoje.uol.com.br/noticias/2011/02/nossa-heranca-europeia/?searchterm=Pena |title=Nossa herança europeia — |language=pt |publisher=Cienciahoje.uol.com.br |access-date=23 January 2014 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120130072656/http://cienciahoje.uol.com.br/noticias/2011/02/nossa-heranca-europeia/?searchterm=Pena |archive-date=30 January 2012}} Brazilian homogeneity is, therefore, greater within regions than between them:

A 2015 autosomal genetic study, which also analysed data of 25 studies of 38 different Brazilian populations concluded that: European ancestry accounts for 62% of the heritage of the population, followed by the African (21%) and the Native American (17%). The European contribution is highest in Southern Brazil (77%), the African highest in Northeast Brazil (27%) and the Native American is the highest in Northern Brazil (32%).{{cite journal |title=Meta-analysis of Brazilian genetic admixture and comparison with other Latin America countries |first1=Ronald |last1=Rodrigues de Moura |first2=Antonio Victor Campos |last2=Coelho |first3=Valdir |last3=de Queiroz Balbino |first4=Sergio |last4=Crovella |first5=Lucas André Cavalcanti |last5=Brandão |date=10 September 2015 |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |volume=27 |issue=5 |pages=674–680 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.22714 |pmid=25820814|hdl=11368/2837176 |s2cid=25051722 |hdl-access=free }}

According to an autosomal DNA study (from 2003) focused on the composition of the Brazilian population as a whole, "European contribution [...] is highest in the South (81% to 82%), and lowest in the North (68% to 71%). The African component is lowest in the South (11%), while the highest values are found in the Southeast (18–20%). Extreme values for the Amerindian fraction were found in the South and Southeast (7%–8%) and North (17%–18%)". The researchers were cautious with the results as their samples came from paternity test takers which may have skewed the results partly.{{cite journal |last1=Callegari-Jacques |first1=Sidia M. |last2=Grattapaglia |first2=Dario |last3=Salzano |first3=Francisco M. |last4=Salamoni |first4=Sabrina P. |last5=Crossetti |first5=Shaiane G. |last6=Ferreira |first6=Márcio E. |last7=Hutz |first7=Mara H. |title=Historical genetics: Spatiotemporal analysis of the formation of the Brazilian population |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=November 2003 |volume=15 |issue=6 |pages=824–834 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.10217 |pmid=14595874 |s2cid=34610130 }}

São Paulo state, the most populous state in Brazil, with about 40 million people, showed the following composition, according to an autosomal study from 2006: European genes account for 79% of the heritage of the people of São Paulo, 14% are of African origin, and 7% Native American.{{cite journal |last1=Ferreira |first1=Luzitano Brandão |last2=Mendes |first2=Celso Teixeira |last3=Wiezel |first3=Cláudia Emília Vieira |last4=Luizon |first4=Marcelo Rizzatti |last5=Simões |first5=Aguinaldo Luiz |title=Genomic ancestry of a sample population from the state of São Paulo, Brazil |journal=American Journal of Human Biology |date=September 2006 |volume=18 |issue=5 |pages=702–705 |doi=10.1002/ajhb.20474 |pmid=16917899 |s2cid=10103856 |doi-access=free }} A more recent study, from 2013, found the following composition in São Paulo state: 61,9% European, 25,5% African and 11,6% Native American.

Several other older studies have suggested that European ancestry is the main component in all Brazilian regions. A study from 1965, Methods of Analysis of a Hybrid Population (Human Biology, vol 37, number 1), led by the geneticists D. F. Roberts e R. W. Hiorns, found out the average the Northeastern Brazilian to be predominantly European in ancestry (65%), with minor but important African and Native American contributions (25% and 9%).{{cite web|url=http://prossiga.bvgf.fgf.org.br/portugues/obra/opusculos/brasileiro_nacional.html|title=BVGF – A Obra / Opúsculos|date=31 March 2012|access-date=19 August 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120331094604/http://prossiga.bvgf.fgf.org.br/portugues/obra/opusculos/brasileiro_nacional.html|archive-date=31 March 2012}} A study from 2002 quoted previous and older studies,{{cite journal | last1 = Salzano | first1 = F M | year = 1997 | title =Study |journal = Interciência | volume = 22 | pages = 221–227}}{{cite journal | last1 = Santos | first1 = S E B | last2 = Guerreiro | first2 = J F | year = 1995 | title =Study |journal = Braz J Genet | volume = 18 | pages = 311–315}}{{cite journal | last1 = Dornelles | first1 = C L | last2 = Callegari-Jacques | first2 = S M | last3 = Robinson | first3 = W M | last4 = Weimer | first4 = T A | last5 = Franco | first5 = M H L P | last6 = Hickmann | first6 = A C | last7 = Geiger | first7 = C J | last8 = Salzamo | first8 = F M | year = 1999 | title =Genetics, surnames, grandparents' nationalities, and ethnic admixture in Southern Brazil: Do the patterns of variation coincide?| journal = Genet Mol Biol | volume = 22 | issue = 2| pages = 151–161 | doi=10.1590/s1415-47571999000200003| doi-access = free| hdl = 10183/23366 | hdl-access = free }}{{cite journal | last1 = Krieger | first1 = H | last2 = Morton | first2 = N E | last3 = Mi | first3 = M P | last4 = Azevedo | first4 = E | last5 = Freire-Maia | first5 = A | last6 = Yasuda | first6 = N | year = 1965 | title=Study |journal = Ann Hum Genet | volume = 29 | issue = 2 | pages = 113–125 | doi=10.1111/j.1469-1809.1965.tb00507.x |pmid=5863835| s2cid = 5102124 }} saying that: "Salzano (28, a study from 1997) calculated for the Northeastern population as a whole, 51% European, 36% African, and 13% Amerindian ancestries whereas in the north, Santos and Guerreiro (29, a study from 1995) obtained 47% European, 12% African, and 41% Amerindian descent, and in the southernmost state of Rio Grande do Sul, Dornelles et al. (30, a study from 1999) calculated 82% European, 7% African, and 11% Amerindian ancestries. Krieger et al. (31, a study from 1965) studied a population of Brazilian northeastern origin living in São Paulo with blood groups and electrophoretic markers and showed that whites presented 18% of African and 12% of Amerindian genetic contribution and that blacks presented 28% of European and 5% of Amerindian genetic contribution (31). Of course, all of these Amerindian admixture estimates are subject to the caveat mentioned in the previous paragraph. At any rate, compared with these previous studies, our estimates showed higher levels of bidirectional admixture between Africans and non-Africans."{{cite journal|pmc=140919 | pmid=12509516 | doi=10.1073/pnas.0126614100 | volume=100 | issue=1 | title=Color and genomic ancestry in Brazilians |date=January 2003 | pages=177–82 | journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | last1 = Parra | first1 = FC | last2 = Amado | first2 = RC | last3 = Lambertucci | first3 = JR | last4 = Rocha | first4 = J | last5 = Antunes | first5 = CM | last6 = Pena | first6 = SD| bibcode=2003PNAS..100..177P| doi-access=free }}

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