On February 21, 2025, the Brazil LAB at Princeton University hosted a discussion featuring historian José Juan Pérez Meléndez, associate professor of history at the University of California, Davis. The event marked the release of his new book, Peopling for Profit in Imperial Brazil: Directed Migrations and the Business of Nineteenth-Century Colonization, published by Cambridge University Press. The conversation was moderated by Miqueias Mugge, academic research manager at the Brazil LAB, with commentary from Isadora Mota, assistant professor of history at Princeton.

In his presentation, Pérez Meléndez offered an overview of Peopling for Profit, which traces the emergence of orchestrated migration as a political and economic tool in 19th-century Brazil. He highlighted how migration policies were not merely humanitarian or demographic efforts but deeply tied to profit motives and state-building. Through meticulous archival research, Pérez Meléndez revealed how private colonization companies and the imperial government collaborated to direct migration flows, shaping Brazil’s population dynamics well before the abolition of slavery in 1888. He argued that colonization practices were often intertwined with the illegal slave trade, challenging traditional narratives that frame immigration as a clean break from slavery.

Following the presentation, discussant Isadora Mota praised the book as a transformative contribution to the historiography of Brazilian colonization, emphasizing its exploration of how economic interests, racial privilege, and global connections influenced Brazil’s imperial expansion. Mota underscored how Pérez Meléndez’s work repositions colonization as central to understanding broader systems of inequality, race, and state formation in Brazil. Her questions also pushed the discussion into new territory, particularly regarding the blurred lines between slavery and immigration and the racial exclusions embedded within colonization policies. Mugge, reflecting on his academic exchanges with Pérez Meléndez, highlighted Brazil’s role in shaping broader Latin American migration models and asked about European perceptions of Brazil’s colonization schemes during this period.

Audience members engaged in a lively Q&A session, exploring topics ranging from the legacies of colonization in contemporary Brazil to the influence of colonization policies on indigenous populations. 

The event was co-sponsored by the Program in Latin American Studies, the Department of Anthropology, and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese.