Brazilians in Dongguan: Migration Across Analogous Industrial Clusters and (Re)creation of Homeland Abroad

ABSTRACT This article explores a case of international migration across analogous industrial clusters (IMAAIC), a form of skilled migration largely linked to South-South migration flows. Using the migration from Southern Brazil to Dongguan, China as the unit of analysis, this article presents an ethnographic account based on documental research and participant observation data collected between 2017 and 2021. The findings map the origins of this migration wave and report on the collective homemaking practices of this community in China. The article discusses three characteristics of the Brazilian migration to Dongguan – namely peripheral, narrow, and contingent – and argues that these elements have constitutive effects on the community's social experiences of homemaking in China, particularly by intensifying practices of (re)creation of homeland abroad. This article contributes to the field of Brazilian diasporic research and South-South migration by reporting on an unexplored migrant community. It also proposes that international migration across analogous industrial clusters is a transnational phenomenon that requires further conceptualisation and study.