If you say the word “migrant worker” in Washington these days, it usually evokes images of Mexican farm labourers. But last week in Boston, at a meeting of financial leaders, the concept reared its head in a surprisingly different way: it was linked to the eurozone.

The context was a lunchtime debate about the future of global finance, at which Paulo de Sousa Oliviera, the head of Brasil Investimentos and Negocios, gave a speech selling Brazil as a financial hub. With passion, Oliviera explained why it was important for financial centres such as Boston, London and Sao Paulo to co- operate, and cited endless statistics showing how vibrant the Brazilian economy is these days, relative to the west.

Then, as the conversation inevitably turned to the latest eurozone horrors, Oliviera made a plea. “There is such high unemployment in Spain and Portugal, they should send their people over here [to Brazil] to get work - they can work and then send money back home [to Europe] and then go home themselves after 10 years!” he earnestly explained. After all, he added by way of example, Brazil currently needs about 60,000 engineers a year - but only 40,000 are graduating inside Brazil. So why not get those European engineers, or other young graduates, to travel as migrant workers? “We have a need for 20,000 more engineers! We have a need for migrants!” he explained. Why not use Latin America as a source of remittances for eurozone families starved of cash?