Between the years of 1908 and 1910, the construction of the Southern Railway from São Paulo to Rio Grande (EFSPRG) stimulated the region that nowadays corresponds to the Catarinense middle-west. At that time this area was disputed between Parana and Santa Catarina, and it was recognised as a contested territory between the states. The labor construction demanded a huge human and financial effort and involved thousands of workers. The least qualified members of staff were responsible for heavier tasks and they were known as "turmeiros", who constituted a contingent of about 8 thousand men. Throughout this research, the documentation indicated a significant presence of immigrants amongst these workers. Lots of them used to work in construction only as a seasonal mean. In periods of colonial intercropping, they migrated to the railway construction region aiming to obtain extra earnings. These migrations would have, inclusive, damaged the establishment of some colonies in the state of Parana, which have not received the due historiography attention yet. In this work, I intend to analyze in details this migration.
EFSPRG; turmeiros; migration
