The recent episodes of racial discrimination against Brazilians in Portugal, –such as the racist insults made by a Portuguese woman against the children of actors Giovanna Ewbank and Bruno Gagliasso– were the backdrop for a virtual conversation between readers of Sheet and reporter Giuliana Miranda, who has lived in Lisbon since 2014.
Brazilians are the largest foreign community in Portugal: officially, there are 252 thousand people in a population of 10 million. It is a record, but it is also an underestimated number, since it does not take into account Brazilians with Portuguese citizenship or from another European country or Brazilians in the process of regularization.
At the same time, complaints of racial discrimination against Brazilians increased.
“I got the impression that the political institutions in Portugal want to build an ideal type of open society, and that is very good. people notice, here and there, discriminatory comments”, said André Silva de Oliveira, from Belém (PA), who has a Portuguese grandfather and was in Portugal for the first time this year.
“There is a problem. The feeling is that the Portuguese authorities push it under the rug, saying that it is a welcoming country, and it really is. But sometimes, between the government’s formal discourse and what actually happens there is a lot of difference “, said Juliana.
“The complaint that Bruno Gagliasso and Giovana Ewbank made can encourage other people not to shut up when they are faced with a similar situation,” he added.
The legacies of colonialism, the Portuguese quality of life, the precariousness of immigrant work and the intensification of cultural exchanges between the two countries were other topics addressed – in addition to linguistic differences and prejudice against Brazilian Portuguese.
“Is there already a course that teaches Brazilians Portuguese from Portugal?”, questioned, in a joking tone, reader Raymundo Lima.
Already producer Maria Olívia Rugani, 28, who lives in Lisbon, wonders if joking comments about accents are also a subtle form of xenophobia.
Conversation with Readers is an initiative by the Interaction section to bring journalists closer to their audience and takes place once a month, around topics in evidence in the news.
Read some excerpts from the conversation below.
Ana Trigo, 52, journalist (São Paulo, SP)
I am a Portuguese daughter. Some people in my family immigrated to Angola and then had to return, with the end of the overseas wars imposed by the regime. [António] Salazar [1933-1968]. And my cousins, when they arrived there, never felt welcomed back. Even my parents, born in Portugal, were not treated as Portuguese when they returned. They were treated like Brazilians. With a certain kindness, but they were no longer Portuguese.
André Silva de Oliveira (Belém, PA)
You find many Brazilians in Portugal. But I saw Brazilians in occupations that require low qualifications, such as taxi driver and waitress. The most qualified jobs in hospitality require English. On the other hand, young Portuguese from the middle and upper classes have emigrated to other European Union countries. That’s because the minimum wage in Portugal is half the minimum wage in France, the Netherlands. In this sense, there may be a Portuguese brain drain.
Antonio Carlos Mazzeo, university professor (São Paulo, SP)
It seems to me that in Portugal, to the extent that there was a very large colonial expansion, with miscegenation, there is a problem that is European, the growth of xenophobia and an ideology of the extreme right. In the case of Brazilians, there is also an atavistic element, with the independence process as it was. In some parts of Brazil there is a certain resistance to the Portuguese, as in Bahia, which had a war of independence, there was an armed confrontation. And Portuguese, when it comes back, is defiled.
Fabiana de Menezes Soares, 53, university professor (Belo Horizonte, MG)
Academic collaborations exist long before 2014; several figures of the Republic studied in Coimbra. But they said they were discriminated against in Portugal. Those children of the great families were the colonized. And when they returned, they began to express their desire for independence from Portugal, even because of this inequality.
I wonder what the behavior is [dos brasileiros ] that feeds back this system. Are there any behaviors that could lead to this kind of systemic discrimination?
Conversation with Readers is an initiative by the Interação editorial department that provides for regular conversations between the house’s journalists and readers on topics in evidence. Keep an eye on the website and networks of Sheet to participate in the next.
