This book employs methods from comparative law to analyze voluntary migration, exploring the free movement of immigrants and their freedom of settlement under Brazilian and Mercosul law, as well as under German law and the European Union’s legal framework on migration. It discusses the level of protection granted to immigrants in terms of their right to enter and stay in Brazil and Mercosul, using German legislation and the EU’s legal framework on migration for comparison. Accordingly, the book will help migration researchers to understand not only the structure and rationale of migration law in Brazil, especially after the entry into force of its recent Migration Law in 2017, but also its relation to EU and German provisions on voluntary migration. It demonstrates how the differing natures of the migration law adopted by Brazil and Germany have led to different approaches and, consequently, different levels of protection for immigrants.

The author is a graduate of Rio de Janeiro State University’s Law School (Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro – UERJ), where she also received her Master of Law in International Law. Emília Castro completed her PhD (magna cum laude) in October 2019 at Universität Hamburg (Germany). She is admitted to the Brazilian Bar Association since 2012 and worked as an Assistant Lecturer for Private International Law at UERJ and as an Assistant Lecturer for Brazilian Private International Law at Universität Hamburg. The author has experience working in gas and energy law in Brazil, and is currently working with global transactions in Berlin, Germany. ​