POSADAS, Misiones.- A extraordinary and quiet An economic and social phenomenon is developing border areas this province, with a Mass exodus from workers to Brazil looking for a job, mainly in the countryside, but also in any other job they find.
“Now whole families are moving away, and not only are they going to neighboring towns, but they are traveling 400 or 500 kilometers to look for a job and staying for 40 or 50 days,” he said. Edgardo “Chichin” Aquino, mayor of Bernardo de Irigoyen, the easternmost city in Argentina, separated from Brazil only by a boulevard that is easier and quicker to cross than Avenida 9 de Julio.
“We have many, about 2,000 San Antonians who go to work on the other side every day,” he said. Fausto Rojas, mayor of San Antonio, another city on the arid border with Brazil, a strip of 50 kilometers long that can be crossed very easily and indiscriminately via legal or secret crossings.
In a province whose borders are 90% international, either with Paraguay or with Brazil, the ties of residents of neighboring cities have always been very close and in times of economic crisis there has always been an exodus of labor.
However, the phenomenon now being witnessed is unprecedented: there are massive border crossings of Argentines seeking rescue on the other side of the border, due to the dramatic lack of work in Misiones and the high cost of living compared to paying rent, services or food in small Brazilian towns and villages such as Porto Xavier, Santa Rosa, Tres Pasos, Panambí and a long list.
“When I was a child, my uncles told me about the Paraguayans or Brazilians who came here to work in the 70s or 80s, but now that has changed,” he explained THE NATION Cristian Klingbeil, a tea and herbal producer from the central region who, due to the crisis afflicting these low-cost productions, decided to leave the country and take a job in his father-in-law’s metallurgical workshop in Oberá.
In Misiones, yerba mate is going through a cycle of low prices, boosted by the deregulation promoted by the national government, but the production of tea, forestry, tobacco or cassava also presents the same panorama.
“People used to leave when the crop was paralyzed, but now they are leaving in the middle of the harvest because the low levels are not being met.” explained in this medium Carmelo Rojas, Secretary of the Oberá Section of the Agricultural Workers’ Union (Uater).
Rojas explained that if the agreements were fulfilled, a farm worker would have to earn about 700,000 to 800,000 pesos a month, which he said the producers did not respect because it was not enough for them either. In Misiones, the owners of this activity are almost always small farmers, here they are called “settlers”, with areas of between 25 and 50 hectares, who are also in a deep crisis, which sometimes leads them to put their land up for sale.
According to a survey conducted THE NATION between mayors, representatives of production and rural work and some missionaries who are in Brazil, The most frequently chosen work locations are neighboring cities or towns close to the border, 100 or 200 kilometers away, so that they can return every two to three weeks and, in some cases, avoid being uprooted.
Río Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina are the two most frequently chosen riparian states, but they can also be areas of Curitiba, Paraná or even Mato Grosso.
“The missionary is very rooted, a part of his country, it is difficult for him to leave the country, he is not like the native of Santiago who has no job in his province and is used to emigrating,” he explained THE NATION Ana Cubilla, Who is Secretary of the Single Union of Rural Workers? (SUOR) and city councilor of Andresito, a city on the border with Brazil on the northeastern tip of Misiones.
Cubilla said that in Andresito “there are whole neighborhoods full of tareferos that are empty because they all went to Brazil to work.” For Cubilla, 80% of the employable workforce there went to Brazil. He said that at the daycare center he runs for children from Tarifa families between the ages of 2 and 13, they found that almost everyone had left when they started asking who would sign up to attend next year.
“Out of about 100, about 80 answered us saying they couldn’t because they worked in Brazil,” Cubilla explained. He accused the national policy towards this activity of encouraging a phenomenon that existed but did not reach such proportions. “The workers are not always treated well, there are situations of slavery and we try to help them return when that is the case. There are people everywhere and they are taking advantage of the desperation.” he commented.
In the months when there is no harvest (October, November and December), the tareferos receive a subsidy, but it is half of a minimum wage. “There is not enough for anything, so many cannot survive and try to leave,” Cubilla said.
This week in the city of Guaraciaba (Río Grande), federal police arrested and deported 125 farm workers who were traveling in two buses. All had entered Brazil illegally to work there. “They get in through the cracks,” Cubilla explains, referring to places that are far from the sight of immigration, customs or border authorities.
THE NATION spoke with Lucio, 26 years old, who works with 13 other missionaries on a farm in the city Otávio Rocha, near the town of Caxias do Sul, almost 600 kilometers from Oberá. “Out of 14 workers, only one is Brazilian. They offer us free accommodation and the food is very cheap. In addition, I have been here for the fifth year and we have the CPF (passport) with which they can wash us. Thanks to this, we work 9 hours and if we work more, they pay us overtime.” pointed out Lucio, who was harvesting tomatoes.
Salaries for workers like Lucio range from 1,800 to 2,200 reais per month, or the equivalent of $330 to $400 per month. The advantage that everyone points out is that the cost of living is much lower than in Argentina and that money “does a lot more” there.
“I estimate that there must easily be between 2,000 and 3,000 Argentines here in Otávio Rocha and it is a small town. This leads to the conclusion that around 100,000 Argentines have to work, not only in Río Grande but also in Santa Catarina.” Lucio pointed.
A lot of work is being done in the harvest of onions, garlic, tobacco, the grape harvest will soon begin (Río Grande is improving the quality of its wines every day), potatoes, apples, strawberries and other crops.
But it’s not just agricultural workers going to Brazil: there are also many construction workers emigrating, with activity in Misiones falling dramatically due to cuts in public works and the paralysis of private work.
Misiones is the third province that has lost the most construction jobs since December 2023 Ieric (Institute of Statistics and Registration of the Construction Industry), Misiones saw every second job reported in the industry disappear. From more than 9,000 two years ago to 4,853 in September, with a decline of 4,190 jobs.
Missionaries looking for work usually cross the dry line in towns such as Bernardo de Irigoyen, San Antonio or via the raft passes of Alba Posse, El Soberbio or San Javier. “On Sunday evening you can see the buses full of people going to the border very early on Monday to take the first raft.” he told THE NATION Hugo Bruenner, journalist who works in the municipality of Santa Rita in the Alto Uruguay region. “I’ve never seen so many people,” he said.
As of August, there were 101,900 unfilled private sector jobs reported in Misiones, virtually the same number as in 2012. But it is also considered the province with the youngest population in the country. Until two years ago, more than half of the nearly 1.4 million missionaries were under 18 years old. With each passing year, the number of young people graduating high school and entering the workforce is increasing sharply, colliding with a supply that is not increasing. “There is no more work here,” many have been saying for years.
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