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Portugal ETHNICITY AND ETHNIC GROUPS
Portugal's population was remarkably homogeneous and
had been
so for all of its history. This lack of ethnic variety
helped it
become the first unified nation-state in Western Europe.
For
centuries Portugal had virtually no ethnic, tribal,
racial,
religious, or cultural minorities. Almost all Portuguese
spoke
the national language, almost all were Roman Catholic, and
almost
all identified with Portuguese culture and the nation of
Portugal. Whereas neighboring Spain had been deeply
divided along
ethnic, linguistic, and regional lines all through its
history,
Portugal, which historically represented but one of the
Iberian
Peninsula's many regional entities, was united. In
Portugal,
ethnic unity and homogeneity were the rule, rather than
the
exception.
Although Portugal lacked socially significant ethnic
differences, some regional differences existed. The north
was
generally more conservative and Catholic than the south
and was
said to be less "tainted" by Moorish or Islamic
influences.
Regional dances, dress, festivals, and customs had once
been very
distinctive, but modern communications and transportation
had
opened up and connected formerly closed regions and
produced a
greater homogeneity. The Portuguese language still
exhibited
regional differences, and linguists could often pinpoint a
person's geographic origin from his speech, but these
differences
were not extreme enough to impede understanding among
Portuguese.
Protestants lived in Portugal as of the early 1990s,
but they
were largely confined to the communities of foreigners
residing
in the country. The small but growing Muslim population
from
North Africa, mainly guest workers attracted by Portugal's
new
prosperity, were concentrated in the Algarve and in
Lisbon. The
number of Jews in Portugal was very small (from 500 to
1,000)
and, like Protestants, mainly limited to foreign
residents.
Portugal had a sizeable Gypsy population, perhaps as
many as
100,000, most of whom lived in the Algarve. Despite
government
efforts to integrate them into the larger society, Gypsies
remained a group apart, seminomadic, earning their living
by
begging, fortune-telling, handicrafts, and trading.
Portugal's foreign community numbered about 90,000 in
1987.
It consisted mainly of Africans (about 40 percent),
Spaniards,
British, Americans, French, and Germans, most of whom
lived in
Porto, Lisbon, the area around Cascais, the Algarve, and
the
Azores and Madeira. These communities were not large and
generally did not become involved in Portuguese life.
Portugal's long colonial history, more than half a
millennium, has left some traces of ethnic diversity.
Former
colonists were found mainly in Lisbon, particularly after
the
colonies were granted independence in the mid-1970s.
Groups of
Angolans, Mozambicans, São Tomans, Timorese, Goans, and
Macaoans
have settled in the capital city, and, along with
Brazilian
immigrants, amounted to perhaps 100,000 persons.
The Goans came from the Indian subcontinent and were
usually
educated, Roman Catholic, and Portuguese speaking. They
were
better assimilated than most other groups. The Macaoans
were
generally of Chinese descent, and many had opened
businesses.
Another group from Asia, the Timorese, were not as well
educated
as the other eastern groups. A population of less than
100,000
black immigrants from Portugal's African colonies often
lived
together in small ghettos in Lisbon and did not generally
assimilate. Many of these minorities used Portugal as a
stoppingoff point en route to more prosperous countries in Western
Europe, but as the Portuguese economy began to improve in
the
second half of the 1980s, more chose to stay permanently.
These
ethnic minorities from the former colonies were not fully
assimilated and often faced to a varying degree racial and
cultural prejudice. However, the small size of these
diverse
ethnic groups prevented this apartness from being a
serious
social problem.
The only group from the former colonies that was fully
assimilated, despite some cultural and adjustment
problems,
comprised those coming from the former colonies in Africa
who
were of Portuguese descent. They had much the same racial
and
cultural background as the Portuguese themselves. Some of
them,
like some of the Brazilians, did very well in their
cultural
homeland and even became wealthy.
Data as of January 1993
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