It might surprise Americans to learn that some Brazilian residents of a marginalized community, in a country whose official homicide rate is almost seven times higher than that of the US, consider themselves relatively safer than if they lived in the world’s richest country up north.

But it’s true. Take 34-year-old Carla Siccos, a local journalist and resident of Cidade de Deus since she was 13, who says she has no desire to travel to the US.

“I’d be scared to death!” she says. “Besides feeling completely safe here, a place I know, I’m scared to go there and something like that happens — I’m somewhere and some crazy person blows themselves up, or a lunatic appears with a gun and starts shooting all over the place.”

Siccos continues: “Lots of people there are prejudiced about coming here, just like we’re scared and prejudiced about going there. Even though it’s a first-world country. I’m scared and I wouldn’t go to the United States.”

Other residents were more pragmatic.