Project: “Living Together: European Citizenship against Racism and Xenophobia” Document: Technical report on Portuguese focus groups in a comparative view Technical report on Portuguese focus groups in a comparative view Tiago Santos, Edite Rosário, Susana Varatojo, Bruno Dias and Inês Possante (Númena – Research Centre on Social Sciences and Humanities) The “Living Together: European Citizenship against Racism and Xenophobia” project (JLS/2007/FRC/036), co-funded by the European Commission - under the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship Programme, is coordinated by the Spanish Monitoring Centre of Racism and Xenophobia – OBERAXE – and, in Portugal , is undertaken by the High Commission for Immigration and Intercultural Dialogue – ACIDI, I.P. PRESIDÊNCIA DO CONSELHO DE MINISTROS Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural, I.P. 1 INTRODUCTION The subject of this report i is the analysis of the focus groups with upper-middle, middle-middle and lower-middle status subjects that took place in Lisbon on the 5 th and 18 th June 2009 within the scope of the “Living Together: European Citizenship against Racism and Xenophobia” project. Besides presenting and analysing this new empirical subject matter, the report also briefly reviews, within this introduction, the national context and the state of the art concerning qualitative and quantitative research on racism and xenophobia in Portugal. In doing this, the authoring team borrowed freely from its previous works on this field of research, updating the information where it was found wanting and adapting it to the present circumstances. 1.1 National Context Portugal is traditionally an emigration country. As a peripheral Southern European economy, it has a long history of supplying unskilled labour for more developed countries. It is estimated that about 5,500,000 Portuguese and their descendents – which is around half of the country’s current resident population – live abroad (Lopes, 1999). There is considerable public awareness of this fact and in our experience it tends to show up as an argument in favour of hospitality in debates about immigration. The first few decades of the 20 th century were marked by large numbers leaving the country. The destinations of choice at that time were Brazil, Venezuela, Canada and the United States of America. From the 60s onwards, transatlantic emigration was increasingly replaced by emigration to Western Europe. The growth of the European economies and their geographic proximity led to a change in the direction of Portuguese migration flows. Even though the traditional transatlantic migration flows did not disappear altogether, we witnessed a new cycle in the history of Portuguese migration. France was the primary destination for the Portuguese moving to another European country. There followed population flows (corresponding to around 1/3 of the working population) to countries such as Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, England and Luxembourg. The emigration flow to Europe between 1960 and 1974 is estimated at 1,500,000 people, equivalent to around 100,000 emigrants per year (Ferrão, 1996). However, the first oil shock had immediate and long-lasting effects on migration patterns. Control measures were tightened and borders closed, especially in Europe. Most countries imposed restrictions on new contingents of immigrants and encouraged the return of foreign residents to their country of origin. In this period 1 Rua Álvaro Coutinho, 14 - 16 1150-025 Lisboa Tel: 21 8106100 Fax: 21 8106117 www.acidi.gov.pt PRESIDÊNCIA DO CONSELHO DE MINISTROS Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural, I.P. the traditional non-European destinations – namely the United States of America, Canada, Venezuela and Australia – were the ones that showed greater permeability to Portuguese immigration. At about the same time, the carnation revolution of 1974 reinstated democracy; brought back the political exiles and made way for a number of social changes that helped staunch the outflow of population. As the decolonisation ensued in 1975, many Portuguese who had lived in the ex-colonies returned to Portugal – it is estimated, on the basis of the 1981 census, that around half a million Portuguese were repatriated – constituting the largest population movement in modern Portuguese history (Pires, 2003). This era of turbulence can be seen to end in 1986, with the country’s entrance into the EEC leading to an unmistakable decline in emigration. Since we just referred to the carnation revolution, it must be noticed that the Portuguese Estado Novo regime (28 th May 1926 – 25 th April 1974), to which it put an end, had an idiosyncratic approach to race relations in what was to be the last European colonial empire. Although Portugal remained neutral in WWII, it must be said that the regime had clear fascist leanings and adopted much of the said movement’s symbols and ideology. However, after the fall of the Axis Powers it completely reformulated its approach to race on the basis of a reading of Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre’s work on lusotropicalismo . According to the Estado Novo’s reworking of the concept, it would designate a relatively benign (in comparison to other European seafaring empires) colonialism based more on miscegenation that on outright exploitation (see Castelo, 1998). Though this has since been scholarly discredited as outright propaganda, it has had long lasting effects on the self- image of the Portuguese. Thus, it was explicitly addressed in the interview guide and should be kept in mind throughout the analysis. The new conjuncture which emerged after the oil shock and the fall of the Estado Novo regime not only reduced the outflow, but also worked as an incentive to the entry of immigrant contingents. It is mainly at the end of the 80s and the beginning of the 90s that immigration into Portugal started to become an important phenomenon. Apart from the increase in immigrants, we can also witness a diversification in the origin of flows. This is marked mainly by a slowdown in immigration from the African ex-colonies – which had been ongoing since the 60s, compensating the shortage in labour force derived from the military conscription of the autochthonous population for the colonial wars, the political exiles and the economic emigration –, a slight growth in numbers of Indian and Chinese immigrants and a significant increase in immigrants arriving from Brazil. This so called first wave of Brazilian immigrants arrived in Portugal to work in highly-skilled occupations such as dentists, advertising and marketing specialists, etc. 2 Rua Álvaro Coutinho, 14 - 16 1150-025 Lisboa Tel: 21 8106100 Fax: 21 8106117 www.acidi.gov.pt PRESIDÊNCIA DO CONSELHO DE MINISTROS Alto Comissariado para a Imigração e Diálogo Intercultural, I.P. The overall landscape of Portuguese immigration changed significantly since 2000. The number of immigrants continued to rise, but there were both quantitative and qualitative changes in migration flows which had remained relatively constant until then. A sudden mass influx of Ukrainians made them the most numerous immigrant group, followed by Brazilians, Cape Verde islanders and Angolans. Correlatively, the phenotype of the immigrant shifted somewhat and there was a marked increase in the level of academic and professional qualifications of immigrants in general and their respective occupational integration. This effect was only mitigated by the fact that the so called second wave of Brazilian immigrants, which manifested itself also at this time, was mostly composed of workers with few qualifications that took up positions in the service sector (hotels, restaurants and commerce). But although the immigrants from Eastern Europe who were beginning to arrive in Portugal generally held higher qualifications than the majority of immigrants already in the country, they were mainly employed in sectors requiring intensive amounts of unskilled labour. Also of note is the fact that by then new patterns of geographic dispersal started to emerge in correlation with employment opportunities in local labour markets. Until the mid-1990s the geographic distribution of immigrants was relatively concentrated around Greater Lisbon (Africans, essentially), with some presence in the Algarve (mostly Europeans) and the Northern Coastal Regions (the main areas of previous Portuguese emigration to Brazil). This distribution reflected the concentration of employment opportunities in the country’s major metropolitan area and the importance of migrant networks for the settlement of new arrivals. However, as of 2000 a new pattern emerged, with immigrants dispersed around the country. This was due to regional development dynamics and the need to remedy the scarcity of labour in some of the most depopulated regions of the country (such as the interior), as well as public and private investment in infrastructure and facilities (Alqueva dam, development of the road network, stadiums for Euro 2004, etc). Immigrants from Eastern Europe, however, showed wider geographic dispersal than those from the Portuguese-speaking African countries and Brazilians. That is to say that in the turn of the millennium Portugal had reversed its position in the international migration system. Until the 70s emigration was predominant, but this has seen a significant slowdown and, especially since the 90s, immigration has become a much more significant force. However, the change in the national and international conjunctures may well be returning Portugal