Brazilian Immigrant Center

WElCOME TO THE BRAZILIAN IMMIGRANT CENTER (BIC)

NATALICIA TRACY, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

The Brazilian Immigrant Center Remembers Martin Luther King Jr.

The Brazilian Immigrant Center (BIC) hopes that you will join us in remembering and honoring the life, ministry, and work of Martin Luther King, Jr., as he continues to inspire us today. Monday January 16th is the federal holiday commemorating Martin Luther King, Jr. Martin Luther King dedicated and ultimately gave his life for the cause of equality and freedom. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech he called for the American dream to be a reality for all Americans, not just for African-Americans, but for all people who are outsiders to mainstream Anglo culture. The Brazilian Immigrant Center believes that Brazilians and immigrants in general have just as much right to access this dream, and we are working every day for equality and freedom for the immigrant community. Martin Luther King also stated that, “Injustice everywhere is threat to justice everywhere.” In our work, we fight for justice in educating and standing up for workers, and in advocating for comprehensive immigration reform.

Our mission is to support workers’ struggles in the Greater Boston area around issues of workplace rights and immigration. Through organizing, advocacy, education, leadership, and capacity building, we join immigrant workers and their families in the fight against economic, social and political marginalization and in working to create a more just society.

updated 1 week ago

A GLIMPSE OF OUR HISTORY

BIC Standing with Fire Bull Workers

Founded in Boston by immigrant workers in 1995, the Brazilian Immigrant Center has always functioned as a worker’s center, designed to support and defend workers’ rights under current Massachusetts and US labor laws. In 2008 BIC also absorbed the smaller Brazilian Workers’ Center of East Boston. Our programs center on organizing, advocacy and training designed to reduce marginalization of immigrants, and promote their empowerment as workers and civic participants. BIC is the only Portuguese speaking Boston non-profit that puts workers’ rights and workplace justice at the center of our service and organizing mission. In the 2005 National Study on Immigrant Worker Centers, surveying 137 community-based and -led worker organizing projects nationally, BIC was reported to be one of five such centers in Massachusetts, and the only one in the U.S. dedicated to working with Portuguese-speaking populations (see Janice Fine,Worker Centers: Organizing Communities at the Edge of the Dream, Ithaca, NY: Industrial and Labor Relations Press, Cornell University, 2006). While we help workers negotiate in smaller cases, we refer individual cases that often become class action suits to outside counsel. We regularly consult with a dedicated group of volunteer attorneys who are available for consultations with our staff or with workers at the Center. We also document many cases we cannot solve and refer them to the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office (MAG), or to the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). BIC is often the bridge between the Brazilian community and the legal system. Our staff and volunteers serve as the eyes and ears of the community in matters of workplace justice. Many in our community are afraid to trust government agencies or the police. Our frequent weekly workshops and seminars train workers in their rights, in how to organize and train others, and support them in the complaint process. BIC sees helping workers with their problems, sometimes as individuals and often as groups, as a key strategy to connecting with the community and promoting organizing. It is through our daily interactions with the community at the Center's offices that we learn about the community's problems and how we can be more effective in organizing our constituency to defend themselves and to promote systemic social change.