Cape-Verdean minority in Portugal and the local authorities

Convegno Internazionale: L’intercultura nel pubblico impiego
Pesaro, 3-4 July 2005

Cape-Verdean minority in Portugal and the local authorities: housing and schooling policies
By Viriato de Barros


Abstract

Cape-Verdean emigration to Portugal suffered a change of status as a result of the independence: in the colonial times the Cape-Verdeans were considered Portuguese citizens who came to live in Portugal, mainly to work in the civil construction and tending to settle around the new construction sites, like Reboleira, Amadora etc., building very simple huts and living in precarious conditions, this way saving as much as they could to send some money to their families, most of them from the island of Santiago. In later stages, many of these Cape-Verdeans sent for their families and settled in areas in connection with their work. That is how poor quarters like the ones in Pedreira dos Húngaros, Marianas, Circunvalação emerged.


With the independence of Cape Verde in 1975, the Cape-Verdeans kept on emigrating, in many instances using illegal schemes. With the exception of those who remained Portuguese by right, the Cape-Verdeans now migrated to Portugal as foreign citizens, which required a different legal procedure for them to be able to live and work in Portugal.


With the increase of the number of Cape-Verdean families who settled in different neighbourhoods of Lisbon and in the suburbs, namely in Amadora, Damaia, Buraca, Cova da Moura, etc. a corresponding new generation of Cape-Verdeans emerges, whose behaviour and attitudes take a different direction from the previous generation, often in conflict both with their parental values and with the non-Cape-Verdean communities in which they are inserted. Many of these so-called second generation Cape Verdean immigrants adopted aggressive attitudes and isolated themselves inside ghetto cultures. Illegal and marginal activities such as drug dealing and youth gangs find a fertile ground in such social and economic conjunctures.

(READ MORE IN: http://www.multiculturas.com/INTI/ViriatoBarrosPesaro.pdf )