Portugal Emigration and Immigration: Difference between revisions

*Historically, Portugal has one of the highest emigration rates in the world. The trend reaches back to the 15th century, when Portugal began overseas exploration and colonization. Many Portuguese individuals moved to '''colonies in Africa, South America, and Pacific archipelagos'''. In the twentieth century, a large number also settled across the '''United States, drawn by the shipping trade in New England, California, and Hawaii'''.  

*'''The vast majority of Brazilians have Portuguese ancestry'''.

====Portuguese Americans====

*According to the United States Census from 2000, there were 1,176,615 Portuguese-Americans, the majority being of Azorean descent.

*Portuguese people have had a very long history in the United States, since 1634.  

*As with other immigrants that arrived in America, several Portuguese surnames have been changed to align with more American sounding names, for example Rodrigues to Rogers, Oliveira to Oliver, Martins to Martin, Pereira to Perry, Moraes or Morais to Morris, Magalhães to McLean, Souto to Sutton, Moura to Moore, Serrão to Serran, Silva to Silver or Sylvia, Rocha to Rock (or Stone), Madeira or Madeiros to Wood, Pontes to Bridges, Fernandes to Frederick, Costa to Charlie, Emo or Emos to Emma and Santos to Stan.<ref name="PA"/>

====Portuguese Angolans====

*The Portuguese colony of Angola was founded in 1575 with a '''hundred families of colonists and four hundred soldiers'''.  

*Many Portuguese settlers married '''native Africans''' resulting in a mixed-race (mulato, later generally called mestiço) population.  

*After Angola abandoned in 1991 the socialist regime adopted in 1975, many Portuguese Angolans returned to Angola. Due to Angola's economic boom, which started in the 1990s, an increasing number of Portuguese without previous attachment to Angola have migrated to Angola for economic reasons, most importantly the recent national economic boom. As of 2008, Angola was the '''preferred destination for Portuguese migrants in Africa'''.Portuguese nationals numbered an estimated 120,000 in 2011, reaching about 200,000 in 2013.<ref>"Portuguese Angolans", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Angolans, accessed 30 May 2021.</ref>

====Portuguese Brazilians====

*After 1530, the '''Portuguese''' started to settle in Brazil in significant numbers.  

*From 1500, when the Portuguese reached Brazil, until its independence in 1822, from 500,000 to 700,000 Portuguese settled in Brazil, 600,000 of whom arrived in the 18th century alone.

====Portuguese Canadians====

*During the 1950s, a large number of immigrants from the '''Azores and Madeira''', fleeing political conflict, moved into the downtown core of Canada's major cities such as the area of '''Portugal Village in Toronto, Ontario and further west along Dundas Street to Brockton Village'''. The stretch of Dundas Street passing through Brockton Village is also known as '''"Rua Açores"'''. From the 1970s, increasing numbers of Brazilians moved into this area.

*The Toronto suburbs of Brampton and Mississauga contain large Portuguese communities.

*British Columbia has around 35,000 Portuguese-Canadians, concentrated in the '''Lower Mainland (Vancouver, Surrey, Richmond, Burnaby, Delta, Coquitlam)'''. Other centers for Portuguese immigrants and their descendants are '''Kitimat, Prince Rupert, Victoria, and the Okanagan Region''' where many are fruit farmers. Many are of '''Azorean''' heritage.<ref>"Portuguese Canadians", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Canadians, accessed 31 May 2021.</ref>

====Portuguese Luxembourgers====

*Although estimates of the total Portuguese Luxembourg population vary, in 2013 there were 82,363 people in Luxembourg with Portuguese nationality. They constitute 16.1% of the population of Luxembourg, making them the largest group of foreigner citizens living in the country. Prior to 1975, '''Cape Verdean immigrants''' were registered as Portuguese immigrants from the overseas province of Portuguese Cape Verde.

*From 1875 onwards, Luxembourg's economy relied upon the immigration of cheap labour of mostly Italians to work in the country's steel mills and to counter the natural demographic decline of the native Luxembourgish population. The mid-1960s saw the arrival of the first Portuguese guest workers (including Cape Verdeans, who also had Portuguese citizenship). At the time, Portugal was ruled as a nationalist authoritarian conservative regime, and an economic downturn coincided with the so-called 'Academic Crisis' and deteriorating conditions in Portugal's colonies to put further pressure on many young Portuguese people to emigrate.

*When Portugal entered the European Economic Community in 1986, Portuguese citizens were to be guaranteed the same rights to the labor market as Luxembourgish citizens.<ref>"Portuguese Luxembourger", in Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portuguese_Luxembourger, accessed 30 May 2021.</ref>

====Portuguese Mozambicans====

*Portuguese explorers turned to present-day Mozambique and two other PALOP nations (Angola and Guinea-Bissau) to bring black slaves to Portugal before bringing them to work for their plantations in their Latin American province, the present-named Brazil.  

*The first permanent Portuguese communities in the region were established in the 16th century. The whole region was divided into prazos (agricultural estates), to be populated by '''Portuguese settler families''' in the 17th century. *Mozambique was declared a Portuguese province by the 19th century.