An Invisible Minority

In the mid-1980s, a relatively new immigrant stream from Brazil began to arrive in New York City. Like other immigrant populations, many of the new arrivals were undocumented, but, unlike other groups, most were from middle-class backgrounds and few wished to extend their stay beyond a few years.

Today, there are at least 150,000 Brazilians in the greater New York metropolitan area—many famously employed as the city's fleet of shoeshiners—and likely over one million throughout the United States.

In this revised and expanded edition, Maxine L. Margolis addresses the dramatic changes and challenges that have affected this population since the events of September 11, 2001, and examines the roles that Brazilians have played in an increasingly turbulent U.S. economy.