Migrants within their own countries are also vulnerable, among them poor Brazilians lured to the Amazon to work on plantations.

And he seems more concerned about poor Brazilians than were his recent predecessors.

That does not mean poor Brazilians need no assistance.

And the millions of Brazilians too poor to open a bank account have to go to branches to cash their paychecks, however meager they may be.

Other new measures likely to affect poor Brazilians are the cutbacks of Government subsidies for basic products, such as wheat and steel.

If anything, the opening of markets in, say, Brazil has vastly raised living standards for many poor Brazilians.

"Among poor Brazilians, there is a very strong culture of not believing in people of their own background and class," said the white legislator.

The government has taken measure to extend planning to poorer Brazilians by subsidizing birth control pills and sterilization at government clinics.

Government and the market economy have failed to create affordable housing for millions of poor Brazilians who have streamed from the countryside to the cities.

It should be emphasised that 65% of the poorest Brazilians are black or of a mixed ethnicity, while 86% of the most privileged are white.