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Portugal Emigration
Portugal has long been a nation whose people emigrated.
Socially significant emigration first occurred in the
fifteenth
century and sixteenth century during the great
explorations.
Although the Portuguese established trading posts at many
places
in Africa and Asia, Brazil was the main colony of
settlement.
Later, numbers of Portuguese settled in the African
colonies of
Angola and Mozambique.
Emigration on a massive scale began in the second half
of the
nineteenth century and continued into the 1980s. Between
1886 and
1966, Portugal lost an estimated 2.6 million people to
emigration, more than any West European country except
Ireland.
Emigration remained high until 1973 and the first oil
shock that
slowed the economies of West European nations and reduced
employment opportunities for Portuguese workers. Since
then,
emigration has been moderate, ranging between 12,000 and
17,000 a
year in the 1980s, a fraction of the emigration that
occurred
during the 1960s and early 1970s.
The main motive for emigration, at least in modern
times, was
economic. Portugal was long among the poorest countries in
Europe. With the countryside able to support only a
portion of
farmers' offspring and few opportunities in the
manufacturing
sector, many Portuguese had to go abroad to find work. In
northern Portugal, for example, many young men emigrated
because
the land was divided into "handkerchief-sized" plots. In
some
periods, Portuguese emigrated to avoid military service.
Thus,
emigration increased during World War I and during the
1960s and
early 1970s, when Portugal waged a series of wars in an
attempt
to retain its African colonies.
For centuries it was mainly men who emigrated. Around
the
turn of the century, about 80 percent of emigrants were
male.
Even in the 1980s, male emigrants outnumbered female
emigrants
two to one. Portuguese males traditionally emigrated for
several
years while women and children remained behind. For
several
decades after World War II, however, women made up about
40
percent of emigrants.
The social effects resulting from this extensive and
generally male emigration included an aging population, a
disproportionate number of women, and a slower rate of
population
growth. Childbearing was postponed, and many women were
obliged
to remain single or to spend many years separated from
their
husbands. In some areas where emigration was particularly
intense, especially in the north, villages resembled ghost
towns
and visitors noted that it seemed that only women were
working in
the fields.
Although emigration brought with it untold human
suffering,
it had positive effects, as well. The women who stayed
behind
became more independent as they managed the family farm
and
fended for themselves. Emigrants abroad absorbed the more
open
and pluralistic mores of more advanced countries; they
also
learned about independent labor unions and extensive
social
welfare programs. The money that emigrants sent back to
Portugal
from their job earnings abroad became crucial for the
functioning
of the Portuguese economy. Quite a number of the
Portuguese who
had done well abroad eventually returned and built houses
that
were considerably better than the ones they had left
behind years
earlier.
During the latter half of the nineteenth century and
during
much of the twentieth century, the greatest number of
emigrants
went to the Western Hemisphere. The Americas were seen as
a New
World offering hope, jobs, land, and a chance to start
fresh.
Between 1864 and 1974, the Americas received approximately
50
percent of all Portuguese emigration.
Brazil was the destination of choice. In addition to
the
climate, ties of history, culture, and language attracted
the
Portuguese to Brazil and enabled them to assimilate
easily.
Despite occasional tensions between them and the
Brazilians, the
Portuguese saw Brazil as a land of the future with
abundant land
and jobs. Hence, about 30 percent of Portugal's emigrants
settled
there between 1864 and 1973. A final surge of Portuguese
emigrants was caused by the Revolution of 1974, when an
estimated
20,000 to 30,000 Portuguese associated with the former
regime
fled or were exiled to Brazil. According to government
estimates,
more than 1 million Portuguese were living in Brazil in
the
1980s.
Among the other Latin American countries, Venezuela has
ranked second to Brazil in terms of Portuguese emigration,
and
Argentina third. Other Latin American countries have
received
only a few Portuguese immigrants, for the Portuguese, like
other
peoples, preferred to go to countries where their fellow
countrypeople could help them get settled.
Emigration to North America was also intense. By the
late
1980s, it was estimated that the number of Portuguese and
persons
of Portuguese descent living in this continent amounted to
more
than 1 million in the United States and 400,000 in Canada,
most
notably in Toronto and Montreal. Significant Portuguese
migration
to the United States began in the nineteenth century.
Early in
the twentieth century, substantial Portuguese communities
were
established in California, New Jersey, and Massachusetts.
Since
the 1950s, the most intense migration has been to the
northeast,
Rhode Island, Connecticut, and to cities in southeastern
Massachusetts.
Portuguese emigration to the United States often
involved
whole families, rather than just the men. For this reason,
emigrants to the United States settled permanently, unlike
Portuguese emigrants to Northern Europe, who were mostly
men who
set out alone with the intention of returning home after a
few
years. Another characteristic of the Portuguese migration
to the
United States was that many were fishermen from the Azores
who
came to work in areas offshore of New England. Others
migrated
from Madeira and São Tomé.
Portugal was never as successful at stimulating
emigration to
its African territories as it wanted to be. For centuries
the
number of Europeans in these territories was small. Faced
with
competition from other European imperialist powers in the
nineteenth century, Portugal sought to fill up its vast
African
spaces with people. The state allowed prisoners to work
off their
sentences by settling in Africa, it offered land grants
and
stipends to prospective settlers, it tried to encourage
its
soldiers assigned there to stay, and it tried to lure
other
Europeans to settle there to augment the thin Portuguese
population. These efforts were not notably successful,
however,
and Portuguese emigration to Africa never amounted to more
than 4
percent of the total.
With mounting opposition to its efforts to retain its
African
territories in the 1960s, Portugal's settlement efforts
again
reflected political, as well as economic, motives. The
government
tried to persuade the unemployed, especially those in the
north,
to settle in Africa rather than emigrate illegally to
Europe, but
in the long run it was unsuccessful in these efforts. Even
the
construction of major dams and other infrastructure
projects in
the territories failed to lure significant numbers of
settlers.
By the mid-1970s, the African colonies were lost, and
Portugal
was flooded with refugees from these areas instead of
providing
emigrants to them.
Upwards of 1 million Portuguese or persons of
Portuguese
descent were living in the country's African colonies in
1974
when these colonies gained independence. Most of these
settlers
left these former colonies rather than live under the rule
of the
Marxist-Leninist groups that came to power. Sizeable
numbers went
to South Africa and to Brazil, but an estimated 800,000
returned
to Portugal, where they increased the already high
unemployment
rate and added to the social and political tensions of the
late
1970s. Eventually, however, most of these returnees were
assimilated into Portuguese society, and some of them
achieved
notable political or financial success.
During the first half of the twentieth century, most
Portuguese emigrating from their country went to its
colonies or
to the Western Hemisphere. This changed dramatically in
the 1950s
when Western Europe began to experience an economic boom
that
lasted at least up to the first oil crisis of 1973. The
boom
created millions of jobs, and Portuguese migrants traveled
north
to fill them. Alongside Italians, Spaniards, Turks, North
Africans, and others, Portuguese worked in restaurants, in
construction, in factories, and in many other areas.
Although
much of the work was menial and poorly paid, such
employment
provided significant economic advancement for many
Portuguese. By
the late 1960s, an estimated 80 percent of Portuguese
emigrants
went to Europe. Many of these emigrants did so illegally,
without
the required documents, because the lure of Europe's
prosperity
was too strong to be resisted.
France was the most popular destination. By the early
1970s,
it was estimated that 8 percent of Portugal's population
lived
there. The Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) had
the
next largest contingent. There were also sizeable
Portuguese
communities in Switzerland, Belgium, Britain, and the
Netherlands. Chaotic economic and social conditions
resulting
from the Revolution of 1974 caused a slight surge of
emigration
in the later 1970s, but it never again reached the levels
of the
1960s and early 1970s.
During the 1980s, the rate of emigration slowed as
revolutionary turmoil subsided and the economy began to
grow.
Greater governmental efficiency and membership in the EC
attracted much foreign investment and created jobs.
Portuguese no
longer had to go abroad to find economic opportunity.
Data as of January 1993
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