Grief and empowerment in the migration process of leaving Brazil to Italy

Despite the fact that human life in itself can be defined as a process of ruptures and recreations, it is undeniable that in transnational migration this process becomes exacerbated provoking many mixed feelings related to instability. The aim of this paper is to discuss these feelings through the lenses of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross five stages of grief. To illustrate this author model, examples are given of a qualitative research with Brazilian immigrant in Rome, Italy in the years of 2003 and 2004. Interviews were then carried with forty six Brazilian women, thirty four men and three key persons. The results concentrate on the evaluation of meanings attached to life events and the social integration through work, living conditions, associations and education achievement. Since the process of inclusion in Italian society was not easy for most of them and many immigrants feel many moments of grief, the idea is to illustrate the negotiation of emotions lived by immigrants in the framework of the five stages of grief when people:  negate what is happening and isolate themselves, feel anger, try to negotiate with reality, feel depressed and finally accept reality. Yet, because there are also feelings of empowerment, this paper will also describe a few success histories of empowerment and raise concerns of the difficulty of the process of becoming socially integrated in the country of destination being attached to the country of origin.