Migration and Brazilians in the United Kingdom

Join our panel as we discuss challenges and opportunities for Brazilians seeking to develop their professional careers in the United Kingdom or returning to Brazil.

Panellists will talk about their experience with the job market in academia and the private sector. The panel will feature alumni of King’s Brazil Institute, current Brazilians in King’s College London, and representatives of the General Consulate of Brazil, UK-based companies, and migration-focused organisations.

We will also talk about the difficult circumstances facing several Brazilian migrants trying to make a living abroad.

This event is being held as part of Brazil Week 2024.

The event will finish with a drinks reception and attendees are highly encouraged to join our cultural closure event that will start at 19:30.

Panellists

Ambassador João Alfredo dos Anjos Júnior has a degree in Law from the Recife Faculty of Law and a Master's in History from the Federal University of Pernambuco. He began his diplomatic career in 1994. He served Brazil in Italy, Venezuela, Argentina, France and Chile. At the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Brasilia, he worked in the areas of administration, protocol, press, parliamentary relations, defence, and strategic matters.

Dr Matthew Aaron Richmond is a political and urban geographer, originally from London. He completed his PhD in Geography at King's College London in 2015, and two postdoctoral fellowships in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the Centro de Estudos da Metrópole (CEM) and at the Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). In 2020, he returned to the UK to begin a Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship at the London School of Economics. He has been a Lecturer in Political Geography at Newcastle University since September 2023.

Vitoria Nabas's work covers immigration for businesses and international corporations in several jurisdictions who seek advice on how to move abroad and, once moved, work lawfully and effectively in the United Kingdom, European Union, and the Americas. She is a director of Law in Britain, a co-founder and former treasurer of Lex Anglo-Brasil, former Coordinator of the UK-Brazilian Citizen Council, Counsellor of the Brazilian Chamber of Commerce in London, former President of the Legal Committee of the British-Colombian Chamber of Commerce, a trustee in Canning House and in King’s Brazilian Institute.

Roberto Santos is a director of client management at Finex Global, WTW. He has worked in the insurance industry for more than a decade, having held several leadership and underwriting positions at global insurers and brokers AIG, Zurich, and Aon, in Sao Paulo, Madrid, and London. Roberto has also volunteered as an English Teacher and Pedagogical Coordinator at the Brazilian charity ‘Cidadao Pro-Mundo.’ He received his BA in International Relations from the Catholic University of Sao Paulo.

Caio Quero is the Head of BBC News Brasil at the BBC World Service. He has extensive experience covering Brazilian politics and foreign affairs as a reporter, journalist, editor, and international correspondent for the BBC, the newspaper ‘O Estado de Sao Paulo,’ and others. Caio is an alumnus of King’s College London, holding an MA in International Relations from the War Studies Department. He received his BA in Journalism from Casper Libero College in Sao Paulo.

Professor Karl Erik Schollhammer is the current holder of the Rio Branco Chair at King’s Brazil Institute. He has taught at the Aarhus University, at the Federal University of Brasília, and has been the Obel Guest Professor at the Aalborg University. Since 1994, he has been a professor at the Department of Language and Literature, Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-RJ), where he teaches comparative literature, Brazilian literature, arts and culture, and literary theory.

Dr Andreza Aruska de Souza Santos is the Director of King’s Brazil Institute at the School of Global Affairs, King’s College London, and Senior Lecturer in Brazil and Latin American Studies. Andreza completed her PhD in Social Anthropology at the University of St Andrews and holds a master’s degree in Social Sciences jointly awarded by the University of Freiburg, the University of KwaZulu Natal in Durban and JNU, in New Delhi, India. Having studied in Brazil, Germany, South Africa, India, and the United Kingdom, Andreza writes about Brazilian politics and city governance comparatively. Before joining King’s, she was a lecturer at the University of Oxford and the director of the Brazilian Studies Programme (2018-2023). She has previously worked at Brazil’s Ministry of Social Development, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (Vienna), the Indian Embassy in Brazil, and the Brazilian Confederation of Municipalities.

Dr Ingrid Aguiar Schlindwein is a USAWA postdoctoral fellow at SOAS University of London’s Department of Development Studies. She has recently concluded a Joint PhD programme in International Relations at King’s College London and the University of São Paulo. At SOAS, she has carried out research about foreign investment for infrastructure projects in developing countries. 

Daniel H. Alves is a PhD candidate in Political Economy at King's College London. Also, he is a Graduate Research Assistant at the Global South Research Group at King's Department of Political Economy, an Affiliate at King's Brazil Institute, and an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Daniel is a qualitative researcher currently working on the politics of social welfare reforms in Brazil and Latin America.