The Experiences of Migrants from the BRIC Countries

The BRIC acronym was coined in 2001 for countries - Brazil, Russia, India, and China - considered to be at a similar stage of newly advanced economic development. As important commodity suppliers (Brazil and Russia) and dominant global suppliers of manufactured goods and services (China and India), the four BRIC countries have the potential to become a powerful economic bloc. These countries' rise in economic status has also changed global migration patterns because human movement predominantly from emerging economies to First-World countries. Accordingly, since the 1990's immigration from BRIC countries to the United States has increased. At the same time, the recent rise in the economic status of BRIC countries also has the potential to induce return migration by luring back expatriates and/or their children. This project will help address the lack of comparative studies on U.S. migration by examining the histories and contemporary patterns of BRIC migration and its impact on existing theories of movement, diaspora, race/ethnicity, and transnationalism.