The Immigration Museum dates from the Bras Immigrant Hostelry project. After the first slavery abolition laws were passed, immigration became an alternative for the ensuing shortage of cheap labor. Another contributing factor to this scenario was the widespread misery and hunger in Europe between the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries. Thus Brazil, and more specifically São Paulo, which was the country’s main coffee producer at the time, developed migration policies which included the Hostelry system  created to receive immigrants who came to work in the plantations and in the country’s first factories.

The Bras Immigrant Hostelry was inaugurated in 1887 and was the first residence for thousands of foreigners and for Brazilians from other states choosing to live in São Paulo. Its main attributions were to receive the immigrants and refer them to their new jobs – the latter was done through the Official Labor Placement Agency, which was located inside the Hostelry building. In addition to accommodation, the building housed a drugstore, laboratory, hospital, post office, laundry, kitchen and medical and dental assistance units. To deal with the large inflows of people, the Hostelry had an organized structure with rigid timetables and inflow rules that required a staff of dozens of people.

As of the 1930s, the Hostelry started to receive migrant workers from other regions in Brazil. In the 1970s, the building lost its original function and in 1978 it was closed down. For 91 years, the Hostelry housed some 2.5 million people from over 70 nationalities, origins and ethnicities.

Since its closure, the Bras Immigrant Hostelry has undergone a transformation process, becoming a listed building and an important icon in the histories of São Paulo state and city and of Brazil. In 1982, the building was listed by the Condephaat heritage preservation agency and 1986 saw the creation of the Immigrant Historical Centre. In 1991, the building was listed by the Conpresp municipal heritage preservation agency and in 1993 the Immigration Museum was created. In 1998 it was renamed The Immigrant Memorial and in 2001 it reverted to Immigration Museum.