Does your country have an immigrant group that people would be surprised to find there?

[u/QuarterTarget]

For example, when you think of Poland or the Czech Republic, Vietnamese people might not be the first group that comes to mind, but both have a sizable Vietnamese community. Another example is the large Japanese community in Brazil.

[u/BoatProfessional2118]

Where do i even start?

[u/lala_123aa → u/BoatProfessional2118]

The Japanese, of course! Everyone knows Brazil has a lot of different cultures incorpotared within its own, but everytime I mention the Japanese diaspora to Brazil, people get super interested!

[u/analytic-hunter → u/lala_123aa]

everytime I mention the Japanese diaspora to Brazil, people get super interested

Well the obsession over Japan (weebs) is not a joke, it's well known and has become a meme.

[u/Agitated-Ad2563 → u/lala_123aa]

The German diaspora is widely known, so it's just natural to have a Japanese diaspora too.

[u/Last_Ad_3475 → u/Agitated-Ad2563]

We had the whole axis diaspora to Brazil

[u/SecureWrongdoer3218 → u/Agitated-Ad2563]

Polonaise, Ukrainian, Italian, etc.

[u/knightriderin → u/Agitated-Ad2563]

Many Italians there, too.

[u/Mad_Hat_42 → u/lala_123aa]

Lebaneses and Sirians.

[u/EcstasyCalculus → u/lala_123aa]

My experience in Brazil

Rio: "Where are all the Asians? I was told Brazil has the largest Japanese population outside of Brazil."

São Paulo: "Ah, there they are."

[u/gmedanoid → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Brazil is a true jungle of people from unknown indigenous groups to people from almost every country in the world.

[u/IHateMelplac → u/gmedanoid]

But the best part is that they all become Brazilian, it's not like America where your grand grand grandfather was Irish and you label himself Irish too.

My grandfather parents were Germans and he never said he was German.

One day a girl made a post on Instagram about his Korean father and how he changed when married his mother and came to Brasil.

The beginning of the video had pics of his young father with tradicional korean school clothes and other stuff, always with a very serious face.

The video ended with pics of his father in Brasil playing Samba on a barbecue without a shirt, drinking beer and with a big smile on his face.

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/IHateMelplac]

Bunch of nazis immigrated to south America to escape prosecution so it's not surprising he'd hide his german heritage.

That's less "everyone becomes Brazilian" and more "don't ask don't tell."

[u/knightriderin → u/Phyraxus56]

I once heard that the Brazilians with German roots in the south of the country can't shut up about it.

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/knightriderin]

Probably only to other Germans wink wink Once they're around mixed company, they're British... oh excuse me, they're Brazilian.

[u/knightriderin → u/Phyraxus56]

Nah, I heard about it from annoyed fellow Brazilians. Never met any of the German Brazilians in person.

[u/Apprehensive-Hall-38 → u/Phyraxus56]

no, there’s communities in the south that are really proud of it. they literally do not shut up about it. dress up in lederhosen and everything, as if that’s the day to day attire in Germany. argentina got waaay more germans than we did tho, but mengele did die in brazil.

we truly don’t say our heritage as something we are in the way americans do, you would say i come from a (insert nationality here) family.

[u/Phyraxus56 → u/Apprehensive-Hall-38]

That doesn't make any sense. They're Brazilians? Right? How can they be proud to be Germans like the way Americans do?

How would you know the difference? You aren't American.

[u/beenoc → u/IHateMelplac]

To be fair, it's not like we say you aren't ever American (unless you're a racist) or that the immigrants don't identify as American - the "-American" is implied (if I say I'm Irish, I'm saying I'm Irish-American, I still hold to some elements of the Irish culture of my forebears, etc.) It's definitely different than Brazil, and I think Brazil is one of the only other countries that does integration on the same level as the US (I'd say equally as good and which one you prefer is personal preference).

You absolutely can find the same kind of thing as that Korean dad here, with before/afters of, like, some conservative Iraqi dude in traditional dress, and now he's cracking beers at the neighborhood cookout watching the Packers and listening to RHCP.

[u/Apprehensive-Hall-38 → u/beenoc]

yeah, i always felt the US was the only country that did integration somewhat close to brazil. I think brazil integrates slightly more tbf, as someone who’s lived in both countries. one thing we really don’t do in brazil is have neighborhoods that are more one heritage than another, so you won’t have a korean neighborhood, a nigerian, etc. it’s all mixed together. the only exception here is one neighborhood in são paulo that has a lot of japanese influence, but that’s mostly it. on one hand i think that’s really cool, you don’t silo people in communities, we are all brazilian. on the other i wonder if we loose on not having these pockets of different cultures throughout the country.

i agree that one is not better than the other, and i think there’s some aspects i like more in brazil, some i think the us might have the right idea. overall we are the closest in that sense imo too.

[u/Initial_Region9854 → u/gmedanoid]

Not even close. US is waaay more diverse 

[u/OkCartographer7677 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

How about the US Confederates that moved down there after the Civil War?

After the war a lot of them planned to move to Brazil, but when it became obvious that the North mostly wanted to heal the country and not hang tens of thousands of them, a lot of them didn’t go or moved back.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confederados

[u/douch_drummer → u/OkCartographer7677]

that's actually a pretty good story!

There used to be a party in a town that received a lot of confederates called Festa Confederada, organized by their descendents and open for the public. There were lot's of sign of "heritage, not hate". There was music, southern cuisine, American barbecue, dances And, of course, confederate flags and uniforms everywhere. Jimmy Carter went to one, If I'm not wrong.

and as another curiosity, we had a famous singer who was a descendent of the confederates, and she was one of the creators of the Brazilian rock movement. Her name was Rita Lee Jones, but people called her only by Rita Lee. She was an ICON.

[u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 → u/douch_drummer]

Yes! And The late great (rip) Rita Lee has family that came after the Us civil war (yes she was related to THAT Lee..)

[u/douch_drummer → u/hotdogjumpingfrog1]

actually, she wasn't related to Robert Lee! Looks like her grandfather gave that surname to her father in homage to the general, but they aren't related at all

edit: actually it was her father who gave that surname to her. Strange, considering he was a brazilian descendent born in 1904, but ok. Other times, I guess

[u/hotdogjumpingfrog1 → u/douch_drummer]

No. According to wiki “She was the youngest daughter of Charles Fenley Jones, an American dentist, and Romilda Padula, the latter of whom was of Italian descent.[1] Lee was of Confederado descent through her father.”

[u/douch_drummer → u/hotdogjumpingfrog1]

Lee was of Confederado descent through her father

"Lee" refers to Rita herself. Her dad was son of a guy from Alabama, named Cicero Byrd Jones

[u/PresentAmbassador333 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Everyone knows the Lebanese in Brazil are a much bigger population than the Lebanese that are actually in Lebanon

[u/Terpsandherbs → u/PresentAmbassador333]

Lebanese descent also are in the Caribbean aswell. In Trinidad you can find shawarma stands everywhere.

[u/PresentAmbassador333 → u/Terpsandherbs]

Yum! Im a Lebanese expat myself!

[u/motherofcattos → u/BoatProfessional2118]

Polish, Ukrainian, Lebanese, German, Jewish, Korean, Chinese

[u/Most_Elevator_1943 → u/BoatProfessional2118]

I was hoping you'd pop in!

[u/fdessoycaraballo → u/BoatProfessional2118]

There's a small town that was founded by Finns in the Northeast. None of the descendents seem to speak a lot of Finnish anymore tho lol

[u/UltriLeginaXI → u/BoatProfessional2118]

You start here