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MAPPING THE BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

An analysis of Claro’s labor market data using the name recognition tool NamSor tool

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City of Boston

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UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

ANALYSIS

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

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ANALYSIS

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

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City of Boston

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What are Scientific Diasporas?

“Scientific Diaspora” refers to highly educated individuals who have emigrated and now contribute to innovation, research, and development in host countries.

Origin of the term:

    • Historically tied to communities forced to migrate due to political, religious, or ethno-racial persecution while maintaining cultural and ancestral ties.
    • In the 1980s, expanded to include highly qualified individuals, coining "scientific diaspora."

Key concepts:

    • Contrasts "brain drain" (negative connotation) with "brain circulation" (positive framework).
    • Migration is not a permanent loss if strategies foster engagement and collaboration across borders.

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City of Boston

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Why study Scientific Diasporas?

Potential of Scientific Diasporas

  • Enables knowledge exchanges and collaboration between sending and receiving countries.
  • Strengthens global competitiveness through cross-border links in science, technology, and innovation.

Focus on Brazilian Diaspora

  • Brazilian policies have facilitated the placement of researchers abroad.
  • Shift from "brain drain" to "brain circulation," emphasizing their potential as a resource.

Challenges and Opportunities

  • Lack of data on the Brazilian scientific diaspora.
  • This study proposes a methodology to identify, map, and analyze diasporas, using Greater Boston as a case study.

Why Boston?

  • Boston is a global hub for science and innovation – the City is a major recipient of NIH funding and a center for research and development.

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City of Boston

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INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

ANALYSIS

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

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City of Boston

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Greater Boston is home to a large Brazilian population, according to the Census.

1 Dot = 50 Foreign-Born Brazilians

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City of Boston

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Choosing the study area: GREATER BOSTON

Many LinkedIn users list their location based on metropolitan areas rather than specific cities.

By focusing on Greater Boston, we capture all professionals who might otherwise be underrepresented if only Boston was considered.

We also capture all people within Boston’s expansive labor market.

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City of Boston

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INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

ANALYSIS

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

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City of Boston

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We can filter LinkedIn profiles to capture the Brazilian Diaspora in Greater Boston�

Brazilian profiles using name recognition (Namsor) of Portuguese names with Brazilian origin

Use city and university keyword filters (e.g., “São Paulo”, “Universidade Federal”) to capture additional Brazilian profiles.

Remove profiles from other Portuguese-speaking countries (e.g., Cabo Verde, Portugal) that might have been misidentified as Brazilian

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City of Boston

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Sample query of the Brazilian Diaspora in Greater Boston using Claro:

Greater Boston

Portuguese names with Brazilian Origin

Additional city and university keyword filters to capture other Brazilians

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City of Boston

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INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

ANALYSIS

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

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City of Boston

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To capture the “Scientific” aspect of the diaspora, we will use additional filters in Claro.

For a highest-constrained sample, we will use the “degree” filter to search for people with doctorate degrees (PhD and MD).

To cast a wider net, we will use the industry filter for scientific industries as a catch-all for the larger scientific diaspora:

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Hospital & Health Care

Pharmaceuticals

Higher Education

Medical Practice

Research

Civil Engineering

Computer Software

Medical Devices

Biotechnology

Environmental Services

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City of Boston

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Query filter for doctorate degree holders in Greater Boston using Claro

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City of Boston

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Query filter for scientific industry profiles in Greater Boston using Claro

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City of Boston

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INTRODUCTION & MOTIVATION

ANALYSIS

SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

BRAZILIAN DIASPORA

CHOOSING THE STUDY AREA

UNDERSTANDING BOSTON’S BRAZILIAN SCIENTIFIC DIASPORA

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City of Boston

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Among the total number of Brazilian profiles in Greater Boston, more than 300 are people with PhDs and MDs, and more than 1,200 are people in scientific industries.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

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Total Brazilian Diaspora Profiles

Doctorate (PhD, MD)

Doctorate (PhD, MD)

%

Scientific Industry

Scientific Industry

%

Greater Boston

13,862

319

2.3%

1,176

8.5%

United States

467,223

6,448

1.4%

21,963

4.7%

World (excluding Brazil)

1,770,994

19,810

1.1%

79,125

4.5%

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City of Boston

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GREATER BOSTON

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City of Boston

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Most Brazilians with doctorates in Greater Boston were educated at top universities in Brazil, with the University of São Paulo leading the way.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 Schools Among Brazilians in Greater Boston with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Brazilians working in scientific industries in Greater Boston were primarily educated at Boston's major research universities like Northeastern and Boston University.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 schools among Brazilians in Greater Boston in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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The majority of Brazilians with doctorates in Greater Boston are employed in Research, Higher Education, and Hospitals & Health Care.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in Greater Boston with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Nearly 500 Brazilians in scientific industries in Greater Boston work in Hospitals & Health Care, followed by significant numbers in Higher Education and Research.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in Greater Boston in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilians with doctorates work as Teachers and Professors. 23 work as Biologists.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 occupations among Brazilians in Greater Boston with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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More than 50 Brazilians in Boston working in a scientific industry work as Teachers and Professors, and nearly 50 work as Medical and Health Services Managers.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 occupations among Brazilians in Greater Boston in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Harvard University and Mass General Brigham employ the largest number of Brazilians with doctorates in Greater Boston.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top companies among Brazilians in Greater Boston with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Mass General Brigham and Harvard University are the top employers of Brazilians working in scientific industries in Greater Boston.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 companies among Brazilians in Greater Boston in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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UNITED STATES

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City of Boston

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Most Brazilians with doctorates in the US were educated at Brazil’s top universities.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 Schools Among Brazilians in the US with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Brazilians working in scientific industries in the US were primarily educated at Brazil’s leading universities.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 schools among Brazilians in the US in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the U.S. with doctorates are predominantly employed in research and higher education, underscoring their strong presence in academia and scientific fields.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in the US with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the U.S. with scientific expertise are heavily concentrated in the health care sector, followed by significant representation in higher education and the tech industry.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in the US in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilian professionals in the US with PhDs or MDs are most concentrated in academia, with nearly 800 working as Teachers and Professors, followed by roles in healthcare and education.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 occupations among Brazilians in the US with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Brazilian professionals in scientific industries in the US predominantly work in education and healthcare, with over 1,100 as Teachers and Professors and over 700 as Registered Nurses.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 occupations among Brazilians in the US in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the US with doctorates work at leading American research universities.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 companies among Brazilians in the US with a PhD or MD

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the US in scientific industries work at leading research universities and healthcare companies.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 8 companies among Brazilians in the US in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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WORLD�(excluding Brazil)

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City of Boston

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Most Brazilians with doctorates in the world were educated at Brazil’s top public and private universities.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 Schools Among Brazilians in the world with a doctoral degree

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City of Boston

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Brazilians working in scientific industries in the world were educated at Brazil’s leading universities, and other top South American universities.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 schools among Brazilians in the world in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the world with doctorates are employed in a diverse array of industries, but primarily Research and Higher Ed.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in the world with a doctoral degree

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the world with scientific expertise are heavily concentrated in the higher ed, civil engineering, and health care sectors.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 industries among Brazilians in the world in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the world with doctorates work at top U.S. universities and companies.

Source: Claro Analytics, Namsor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 companies among Brazilians in the world with a doctoral degree

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City of Boston

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Brazilians in the world in scientific industries work at leading multinational healthcare companies.

Source: Claro Analytics, NamSor, City of Boston Planning Department Research Division.

Top 10 companies among Brazilians in the world in a scientific industry

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City of Boston

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APPENDIX:�ABOUT CLARO AND NAMSOR

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City of Boston

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What is Claro?

A powerful labor market intelligence platform that aggregates data from various sources such as LinkedIn and job boards to provide real-time insights into employment trends.

How it works:

Data Aggregation: Collects professional profile data across platforms (e.g., LinkedIn).

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Filters and Custom Queries: Allows advanced searches based on job titles, industries, degrees, skills, and location. Users can create targeted queries to analyze specific workforce segments.

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City of Boston

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What is NamSor?

A name analysis tool that uses algorithms to infer diaspora, country of origin, and gender from personal names.

How it works:

Diaspora: The algorithm matches names to global ethnic groups based on linguistic and cultural patterns.

Country of Origin: It predicts the likely country of origin for a name, using databases of names from around the world.

  • These two models are integrated with Claro.

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City of Boston

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NamSor Algorithm Accuracy and Limitations

Diaspora: Identifies Lusophone names with 85%-95% accuracy, including Brazilian, Portuguese, Luso-Asian, and Luso-African origins.

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Country of Origin: Differentiates Lusophone diasporic groups with ~75% accuracy (e.g., Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde).

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City of Boston

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Visualizing the NamSor algorithm

NamSor uses a natural language processing (NLP) model, embedding a representation of a word as real-valued vectors that encodes the meaning of the word in such a way that the words that are closer in the vector space are expected to be similar in meaning.

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Names that are closer in the vector space belong to the same gender/geographic/linguistic/racial/ethno-cultural group.

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City of Boston

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Easy case: distinct ethnic groups

Russian, Nigerian, Turkish, Japanese and Polish names are quite distinctive.

Russian

Nigerian

Turkish

Japanese

Polish

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City of Boston

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Hard case: Portuguese-speaking diasporic groups are harder to differentiate

French, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish names belong to the same linguistic group, have had significant cross-migration and cultural exchanges.

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Portuguese (from Portugal) and Brazilian Portuguese name are hard to differentiate (current model accuracy is ~75%).

Brazilian

French

Portuguese

Spanish

Italian

RESEARCH DIVISION

City of Boston