CURITIBA, Brazil — Curitiba is not as big as São Paulo and not as known as Rio de Janeiro, but it is the fastest-growing city in Brazil.
According to the United Nations, the population of Curitiba, the capital of the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, has nearly doubled in the last year.
Janaína Perin Sória, of Paraná’s office of international relations, attributes the growth to the many immigrants from all over the world who now call it home.
“We have over 500,000 or 600,000 Ukrainians,” Perin Sória said.
The migrants are fleeing war, poverty, and dictatorships. Venezuelans started moving to Curitiba before U.S. President Donald Trump’s push for deportations.
Santiago De Posada is among the Cubans who have moved to Curitiba and found it welcoming. More Cubans have applied for asylum there than Venezuelans.
“Curitiba has a lot of opportunities,” De Posada said.
Personal income in Curitiba is double the average in Brazil. Clarice Barellos, a migrant from Cuba, said in Spanish that she had heard Curitiba was pretty and clean.
“There is always work,” Barellos said.
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