Migratory experience and ethnicity in the metropolis: the Japanese in São Paulo in World War II

Abstract

The project in which Monica Raisa Schpun (researcher at the Centre de recherches sur le Brésil contemporain et colonial, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales) will act as collaborator is related to two initiatives: the Interdisciplinary Center for the Study of Cities (CIEC); and the Center for Population Studies (NEPO), both of them based at Unicamp. It is related also to the studies conducted by a inter-institutional group "History and Political Languages: reason, feelings and sensitivities", especially considering the current studies on the theme Indifference. Therefore, it is not a project in the strict sense, but series of discussions which converges to the theme of migration experience addressed by Mônica Schpun. "Migration processes and their consequences" is a insistent theme in studies of urban life and the contemporary city. The migration is related to displacements, among other things, not only considering the spaciality condition, but rather social and cultural dimension. It is experienced as an constant change, even when it is possible to return to the original place. It is also a condition that tends to somehow naturalization, incorporation, not infrequently marked by violence , including a symbolic kind of violence. In the case of a city like São Paulo, which is configured from successive changes and through the constant influx of immigrants from different origins, it is possible to hide the impact of migration processes in the form of concepts such as multi-ethnic or cosmopolitanism, both charged with senses and able to appease potentially conflicting situations. It is this context that studies of Japanese immigrants, especially in a period marked by tensions - both situations the New State and World War II - to analyze and reflect more deeply about maybe some explicit dimensions of urban life and migration processes.The importance of the presence of the researcher Monica Raisa Schpun lies precisely in these notes. It is appropriate in many ways, considering the circumstances in this proposal: the advanced stage of the same research on Japanese immigration in São Paulo (with crossing sources and unknown information); the organizations by the CIEC of a project to study cosmopolitanism and ethnicity in Sao Paulo; the condition of NEPO, which have just finished a successful thematic project on migration in the state of São Paulo; ongoing studies on the theme of indifference developed by the group "Political Languages, which participation of several researchers from CIEC. The researcher will participate in a series of activities in the two cores, besides working in the Department of Cultural Heritage of São Paulo in order to collect more data on the ongoing research. Among the activities in which priority is given to the academic dialogue and debate of theoretical and methodological issues involved in research, are: a. Meeting with researchers from NEPO and CIEC (for discussion of possible thematic , methodological exchanges and research projects in different approaches); b. Meeting with graduate students who develop projects on migration and urban studies (workshop to address methodological procedures and font handling in studies on migration and urban life processes ); c. Seminar by the NEPO staff: "Discussion Time": history - social and demographic approaches the issue of migration in Sao Paulo; d. Seminars on Pos-graduated studies at Culture and City line and the CIEC: "Indifference and migration issues: reflections on the case of refugiadosjudeus and Japanese-Brazilians during the Vargas Era". (AU)