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In the world · Migration · 31 July 2026

Colombians in Brazil: what the 2025 numbers say

Colombians are the 3rd origin of foreign MEIs in Brazil and their asylum requests grew in 2025. Data from OBMigra, Sebrae and Bogotá.

bairogonzalez.com team, drawing on Bairo's story · Published

The Colombian community in Brazil is smaller than the Venezuelan or Bolivian ones, but it shows up in almost every indicator for 2025 and 2026. Colombians are the third-largest origin of foreign microentrepreneurs in the country, with 10,547 active MEIs in June 2026, according to Sebrae. In OBMigra, they appear in the third group of nationalities with the most residence registrations in 2025 and among those whose asylum requests rose the most.

What happened

Three official sources, from two countries, help draw the picture.

In Brazil, OBMigra. The report Dados Consolidados da Imigração no Brasil 2025 (Consolidated Immigration Data for Brazil 2025), from the Observatory of International Migration, shows that Venezuelans remained the group regularizing most in the country, followed by Bolivians and, in a third group, by Haitians and Colombians. The same document records that, with the drop in Venezuelan asylum applications, other nationalities gained relative weight among applications, among them Angolans, Colombians, Peruvians and Moroccans.

In Brazil, Sebrae. In the survey released on July 31, 2026, Colombia is the third origin of foreign MEIs, with 10% of the total, behind Venezuela (25%) and Bolivia (14.5%). The most common sectors among foreign MEIs are clothing retail, garment making, beauty, teaching and restaurants.

In Colombia, Migración Colombia. The report Migración y coyuntura: el caso de Brasil, published in December 2025 by the Colombian agency's migration observatory, notes that the two countries share about 1,645 km of Amazon border, with the Leticia–Tabatinga axis as the main point of contact. In 2024, Brazilians made 166,000 entries into Colombia, the highest number since 2019.

There is also the money that goes back home. Banco de la República reported that Colombia received US$13.1 billion in remittances in 2025, 10.5% more than the previous year. According to Colombia's central bank, the United States accounts for more than half of that amount.

Why it matters

Colombian migration to Brazil is, to a large extent, migration with a plan. Unlike those who arrive because of a humanitarian crisis, many Colombians come to work, study or start a business, and they can count on a simple legal path: since 2012, Colombia has been part of the Mercosur Residence Agreement, which allows them to apply to the Federal Police for a two-year temporary residence and then convert it into indefinite residence.

The MEI numbers confirm this profile. A community that accounts for 10% of the country's foreign microentrepreneurs, while being much smaller than others, is a community that is entrepreneurial beyond its size.

There is also the other side. The increase in asylum requests by Colombians is a reminder that not every departure is a choice. Applying for asylum means telling the Brazilian State that going back is not safe, and each application is reviewed by Conare (the National Committee for Refugees).

In Bairo's view

Bairo Leandro Gonzalez Martinez was born in Colombia in 1982 and has lived in Brazil since 2002. In the story he tells, Brazil was a dream before it was an address: since he was a boy he said he would live here, and capoeira was the bridge. The chapter Capoeira was the bridge tells that beginning.

In his reading, the Colombian who starts a business in Brazil carries two advantages that almost never show up in the statistics: they speak the language of a market of more than 50 million people on the other side of the border, and they know the culture of both countries from the inside. For Bairo, this makes every small Colombian business in Brazil a potential commercial bridge.

He often says the sun is for everyone, but shade, in the heat, is for few. For Bairo, the numbers show a community that, instead of waiting for shade, went and built it. His trajectory is in The founder.

Where this meets the ecosystem

The ventures Bairo founded were born from someone who moves between countries. CEASA Bank, a financial platform for agribusiness that operates on the infrastructure of an authorized institution, has the vision of connecting producers and buyers from different countries, with AI pricing and fast invoicing, and a Bolivian entity being incorporated. Colombia, a major producer of coffee, fruit and flowers, is the kind of market where this vision would make sense, as a proposal and not as an existing operation.

In health, Xperienc Global Labs proposes Global Language, in which patient and specialist each speak their own language, in a clinical second opinion that does not replace the local doctor's report.

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In the world: Migration