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Experiences of Second-Generation Venezuelan-Portuguese Migrants

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Experiences of Second-Generation Venezuelan-Portuguese Migrants ‘Roots migration’: The post-‘return’ experiences of second-generation Venezuelan-Portuguese migrants Ramnyra Gabriela da Silva Isturiz Dissertação de Mestrado em Migrações, Interetnicidades e Transnacionalismo Dezembro, 2020 Dissertação apresentada para cumprimento dos requisitos necessários à obtenção do grau de Mestre em Migrações, Interetnicidades e Transnacionalismo, realizada sob a orientação científica do Professor Doutor José Manuel Mapril Lisboa, Dezembro 2020 ‘ROOTS MIGRATION’: THE POST-‘RETURN’ EXPERIENCES OF SECOND- GENERATION VENEZUELAN-PORTUGUESE MIGRANTS [Ramnyra Gabriela da Silva Isturiz] Abstract: Luso-Venezuelan ‘returnees’ have been moving from Venezuela to Madeira since the 1990s. In recent years, they have arrived in masses, as a result of the ongoing crisis that hit the country after the severe global crash in oil prices. This study focuses on ‘roots migration’, specifically on the experiences of second-generation ‘returnees’ from Venezuela to Madeira, as an important part of the historic phenomenon of emigration from Portugal to Venezuela that started in the 1940s, with a clear majority departing from Madeira island. Drawing on fieldwork based on semi-directed interviews, the aim is to understand the circumstances in which the decision to relocate to Madeira takes place, and how the migration experience develops upon return. Taking into consideration and highlighting these individuals’ upbringing as children of well-integrated immigrants, we look at the way these migrants negotiate their identities and belonging, and how their constructions of the self and home influence their expectations and lived experience in the ancestral homeland. Abstrato: ‘Retornados’ Luso-Venezuelanos têm chegado à Madeira vindos da Venezuela, desde a década de 1990, e nos últimos anos, têm chegado em números significativos, como resultado da atual crise que o país tem atravessado desde a grave quebra global dos preços do petróleo. Este estudo centra-se na 'migração em busca de raízes', nomeadamente nas experiências dos filhos dos imigrantes Madeirenses na Venezuela, no âmbito do fenómeno histórico da emigração Portuguesa para a Venezuela que se iniciou nos anos 1940, e cuja maioria era oriunda da ilha da Madeira. A partir de um trabalho de campo centrado em entrevistas semi-diretivas, pretende- se compreender as circunstâncias em que surge a decisão de relocação para a Madeira, e como se desenvolve a experiência migratória após a chegada. Tendo em consideração que os indivíduos em questão são filhos de imigrantes bem integrados no país de acolhimento, analisamos a maneira como estes negociam a sua identidade e sentimentos de pertença, que por sua vez influenciam as expetativas criadas e posteriormente as experiências vivenciadas no país de origem dos pais. KEYWORDS: luso-venezuelans, return migration, second-generation, transnationalism PALAVRAS-CHAVE: luso-venezuelanos, retorno, segunda-geração, transnacionalismo III Table of Contents Introduction ................................................................................................................... VI 1. Methodology ............................................................................................................... 1 1.1. Research project and interviews ................................................................................ 5 1.2. General characteristics of the sample ......................................................................... 8 2. Migration flows between Portugal and Venezuela .......................................................10 2.1. Emigration from Madeira to Venezuela (1950-1980) ................................................. 12 2.1.1. First generation immigrants in Venezuela ............................................................ 16 2.1.2. Integration into Venezuelan society ..................................................................... 19 2.1.3. The Second-Generation: the Luso-Venezuelans ................................................... 24 2.2. Migration from Venezuela to Portugal (1990-2020) .................................................. 26 3. Second-Generation migrants return to the ancestral homeland ...................................30 3.1. Theoretical framing ................................................................................................. 30 3.2. Literature review ..................................................................................................... 33 4. Luso-Venezuelan return migration to Madeira ............................................................48 4.1. Luso-Venezuelan migration through media .............................................................. 49 4.2. Regional response ................................................................................................... 52 4.3. Venecom, Virgin of Coromoto, Arepas and Baseball .................................................. 56 5. The experiences of return migrants .............................................................................58 5.3. Growing up in Venezuela: the Portuguese permeable bubbles .................................. 59 5.3.1. Family migration histories ..................................................................................... 59 5.3.2. Family life in Venezuela and references to the homeland ................................... 61 5.3.3. Transnational practices: language, Portuguese clubs and homeland visits ......... 66 5.4. Leaving home to find home: two periods of exodus .................................................. 70 4.4.1. Young migrants search for new lives (1990-2010) ............................................... 70 5.4.2. Escaping socio-economic decay (2010-2020) ....................................................... 73 5.5. Adapting to the new realities of rural Madeira ......................................................... 75 5.5.1. Unemployment, isolation and sacrifice ................................................................ 78 5.5.2. Reverse transnationalism...................................................................................... 83 Conclusion ......................................................................................................................86 Bibliography ...................................................................................................................91 IV Attachment A: Consent ..................................................................................................... c Attachment B: Interview guidelines ................................................................................. ci V Introduction Between the 1960’s and the 1970’s, a wave of transatlantic migration took place in the world, being vastly characterised by the outflow from European countries to the Americas. This was possible because Venezuela had rather positive migration policies towards Europeans, not only because of the need to export foreign labour, but as part of the process of race-building in the country, which favoured the incoming of white Europeans (Wright 1990). Europeans, in turn, were escaping economic crisis, dictatorship regimes and being deployed to colonial wars. They were attracted to Venezuela, which at the time was experiencing prosperity because of the oil boom, up until the 1980s. The Portuguese emigration to Venezuela had its peak in the 1960s, when around 75.000 Portuguese migrants arrived in the country, with a clear majority coming from Madeira island (Antunes 1970). The mass migration was made possible by the migration policies between the two nations, which easily enabled Portuguese nationals to settle in Venezuela. The economic prosperity that the country was going through, due to the development of its then strong and wealth generating oil sector, attracted migrants wishing to escape economic difficulties and seek better life conditions. The Portuguese population in Venezuela is the second largest in South America, while at the same time being among the largest immigrant groups in the country, along with the Italians and the Spanish, mostly settled in three big cities – the capital city of Caracas, Valencia and Maracaibo – where many started small businesses, bought properties and built homes (Da Rosa, Gandsman and Trigo 2010). Venezuela’s attractiveness as a destination country gradually decreased throughout the following decades as a result of political and economic instability. Meanwhile, conditions in Portugal were improving, influenced by the transition to a democracy in 1974 and further entering the European Union 1986. This conjuncture prompted a new counter wave of mass emigration from Venezuela to Portugal. Mainlanders were the first to return whereas Madeirans remained established in the country for longer, due to the delay in progress in the island and their still lucrative businesses in Venezuela. However, as economic and political instability deepened in the country since 2014, the wave of return migration to Madeira that started in the early 1990s became more significant, yearly reaching its highest volume in the past five years. This wave of mass emigration from Venezuela to Madeira is now composed VI of first-generation returnees, their offspring - the second-generation and young members of the third-generation, as well as intergenerational Venezuelan partners and their ethnic mixed children. During the years preceding Hugo Chávez’ elections and throughout his governance, several events were pointing to a political and social turmoil in the country
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