Reverse brain drain pulls Brazilians home, and Europeans with them

Amid Brazil's rise, pessimists argue that longstanding corruption, bureaucracy, and inefficiency will hold the nation back. That's where Meu Rio sees an opportunity: using social media to pressure politicians and question policies that don't make sense. Its most successful campaign to date was passage of a state constitutional amendment barring ministerial appointments of anyone ever accused of corruption.

If Lago's studies abroad shaped his notions of good governance, Orofino's got Meu Rio off the ground. She got a job at the Purpose in New York City, where she still works, splitting her time between New York and Rio. Purpose incubated Meu Rio, giving it the technical savvy to run a social media activist site.

The 'lost generation' finds itself in Brazil

The idealism of creating a new Brazil is not on the minds of Europeans coming here so much as financial desperation is, says Mr. Chanis, whose company chemically transforms natural gas to synthetic crude oil.

Desperation is clear in the message delivered repeatedly by Portuguese Prime Minister Pedro Passos Coelho in the past year: The only solution to soaring youth unemployment is for the "lost generation," as the young are increasingly called, to emigrate. The Portuguese population in Brazil increased 20 percent between 2010 and 2011, from 277,000 to 329,000.

"As engineers, our only option is to leave the country" and go to the "old colonies" of Brazil or Angola and Mozambique in Africa, says Antonio Quintao, who arrived a year ago in Brazil, which lacks thousands of professionals.

Cruz says that 30 people he personally knows have lost jobs amid Europe's crisis. He knows 10 who have relocated to Brazil since he did a year ago. And so many others have asked for advice, even as Brazil's economy has cooled this year, that he has drawn up a template e-mail about the job market in Brazil, with information about average expenses and where to live.

Even for those with jobs in Europe, prospects for growth were a major factor driving them to Brazil. Chanis says when his company opened an office in Brazil last year and offered him a job as country manager, "it took me less than three seconds to say yes. I wanted to get as far away from Europe as possible." He adds: "You can help Brazilian companies in many more ways than you could European ones."

Though possessing no grand plan to change Brazil, Chanis admits the inherent back and forth in the mix of cultures can only benefit Brazil, from technology transfer to notions of best practices in business. But he, and scores of other foreigners, are really the ones with everything to gain, he says: "Brazil has huge amounts of resources, no enemies. It is a very young country that is uneducated, so there is a lot of room for growth. There is huge opportunity. [No] other country in the world ... can offer this kind of potential." •

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