Social Representations of Brazilians about refugees in the country

Abstract

This study aims to discuss the Social Representations of Brazilians regarding the phenomenon of refuge in Brazil, based on Abric’s Central Core Theory. A total of 956 Brazilians from all regions of the country participated in the research. The free word association technique was used with the inducing terms “refugee” and “refugee in Brazil”, and prototypical analysis was conducted using the Iramuteq software. The term “refugee” presented a central core composed of “war”, “escape”, and “suffering”, reflecting the current context of conflicts and forced displacement. For “refugee in Brazil”, the central core included “Venezuela/Venezuelan”, “reception”, and “Haiti/Haitian”, highlighting the specific social contours of this phenomenon in the country. The Multiple Correspondence Analysis revealed regional variations in these representations. The results indicate that, although the importance of reception is acknowledged, prejudice persists, along with the absence of references to the positive contributions of refugees, suggesting a predominantly assistance-based perspective.