{"id":409596,"date":"2026-04-21T07:01:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:01:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409596\/"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:01:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:01:09","slug":"i-tell-all-my-irish-friends-that-ireland-is-the-brazil-of-europe-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/409596\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I tell all my Irish friends that Ireland is the Brazil of Europe\u2019 \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stephanie Marques (30) arrived in Ireland for the first time from Brazil<\/a> on St Patrick\u2019s Day<\/a> 2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had no idea that St Patrick\u2019s Day was a thing,\u201d she says. She had chosen to fly that day as it was the cheapest flight she could find: \u201cI thought the flight was so cheap because it was March and cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

Marques had moved from her native S\u00e3o Paulo to Dublin<\/a> to learn English, initially planning to only stay for the duration of her language course. When she arrived at her host family\u2019s house, she found it decorated with banners and bunting and thought that they had decorated the house with Irish motifs for her arrival.<\/p>\n

A few months after arriving she asked her host mother if they had decorated the house for her arrival or for St Patrick\u2019s Day. Her host mother laughed and clarified that they had decorated the house for the national day.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe only things I knew about Ireland was that it rained a lot, people drank too much and there were lots of Brazilians.\u201d<\/p>\n

Growing up in S\u00e3o Paulo, raised by a single mother, Marques spent a lot of time with her grandmother, who was a chef at a local school.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was always in the kitchen with my grandmother because my mum, she worked at the bingo and now she works at the poker table, but she was always working at night.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0A Brazilian man in Ireland: \u2018I was working nights just collecting drunk people\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

Looking to follow in her grandmother\u2019s footsteps at 17, Marques enrolled in culinary school at the University of S\u00e3o Paulo. <\/p>\n

From her second year in college she began working in events. That led to a job after college for a company that did catering for big companies such as LinkedIn and Google. Her job was very demanding.<\/p>\n

\"StephanieStephanie Marques moved to Dublin from S\u00e3o Paulo. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

\u201cI would work Sunday to Sunday. I would have one Sunday off a month and then sometimes Monday. I would always have to be there.\u201d<\/p>\n

Her hours were meant to be 6am-4pm but in practice it was 6am-6am as they had to clean the kitchen and get things ready for events the next day.<\/p>\n

Feeling burnt out, she decided to take a career break to learn English. Her first choice of destination was Canada, but after having her visa request denied twice, she had to look elsewhere and with a bit of help from her mother found an English course in Ireland.<\/p>\n

Moving from sunny Brazil to rainy Ireland was a shock, and she felt isolated. She desperately missed her friends and close-knit family.<\/p>\n

\u201cI didn\u2019t want to stay here. I would cry every day because I didn\u2019t understand English and I didn\u2019t understand the Irish accent. It was just so rainy. It does also rain a lot in Brazil, but this is a different type of rain. It\u2019s very cold.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, with a bit of time, Marques made friends and began to adapt to life. Just as she was beginning to settle in, the Covid-19 lockdown happened, which prevented her from travelling home when her English course came to an end.<\/p>\n

During this time Marques had steady work as a childminder for a family, which she became close to. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey treated me as part of the family too. I thought, Why am I going to leave now?\u201d<\/p>\n

She decided to return to college and did a marketing degree at the Dublin Business School. <\/p>\n

\u201cAt college I saw that people would stick to their own groups. The people from Chile with their own community; the Irish people with their community; the Spanish and, I don\u2019t know, Italian people did the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u00a0\u2018I work with a lot of Irish people around my age. Sometimes they ask me questions that are a bit weird\u2019Opens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

As a result, most of her friends from college are Brazilian. <\/p>\n

During her time at college she worked several jobs to support herself, including night shifts as a cleaner and minding children.<\/p>\n

\"StephanieStephanie Marques moved to Dublin from S\u00e3o Paulo. Photograph: Bryan O\u2019Brien <\/p>\n

After graduating she worked two jobs in which she says her bosses said they would sponsor her visa but ultimately did not. Growing increasingly desperate as her visa was coming to an end, she applied for a job doing logistics at company that supplies gluten-free chicken products. In her interview they told her that if she passed the trial day, they would hire her and immediately apply for her visa.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just had a good feeling about. It felt too good to be true but I had a good feeling about it.\u201d<\/p>\n

She passed her trial and has worked there ever since.<\/p>\n

She believes that some similarities between her homeland and Ireland are what has made her feel so at home here.<\/p>\n

\u201cI tell all my Irish friends that Ireland is the Brazil of Europe. It\u2019s just too similar. You guys love to party. We love to party. We drink a lot too. We love beans as well, but our beans are different. They are not with tomato sauce.\u201d<\/p>\n

She plans to stay in Ireland and hopes to get her Irish citizenship one day. Her dream would be for her mother to move here one day as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother loves it here so much. And then seeing my friends accomplishing what they wanted. The possibilities that we have here in Ireland.\u201d<\/p>\n

We would like to hear from people who have moved to Ireland. To get involved, email newtotheparish@irishtimes.com<\/a> or send us two lines about yourself using the form below. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stephanie Marques (30) arrived in Ireland for the first time from Brazil on St Patrick\u2019s Day 2019. \u201cI…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":409597,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[1347,615,61,60,37614,43],"class_list":{"0":"post-409596","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ireland","8":"tag-brazil","9":"tag-dublin","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-new-to-the-parish","13":"tag-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409596","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=409596"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/409596\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/409597"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=409596"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=409596"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=409596"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}