How Has My Perception of Portugueseness Been Transformed by My Readings of the Experience of Portuguese Migrants and Ethnic Minorities in Portugal?

The word ‘Portugueseness’ can in a sense be quite misleading as it comes across as being simple and straightforward, however this is not the case. ‘Portugueseness’ is actually a misleading and complex word. I say misleading as one would instantaneously attach ‘Portugueseness’ to a Portuguese individual. To make this assumption is a mistake in itself. Not only can being Portuguese involve many different aspects but Portugueseness cannot only be attached to an individual labelled as Portuguese. There are millions of Portuguese migrants around the world and they cannot all share the same approach of representing their country and their culture. As well as that everyone is different and therefore every individual will have a unique and different interpretation of Portugueseness. That is exactly what I am going to look at in this piece of work; how Portuguese migrants represent their country and what being Portuguese means to different people.

There are many Portuguese migrants around the world, in fact (Barreto 1996) identified that almost one third of Portugal’s population lives abroad in various corners of the globe. During certain years however there was a massive interest in migrating which was taken up by the Portuguese. During the 1960’s and 70’s many choose to migrate to Western European countries.

When you migrate to a country it is understandable that you will do what it takes to feel at home and happy with your surroundings. In many cases however this does not mean having to compromise your cultural identities and traditions. Trying to achieve both would evidently be a challenging job, however it can be done and it is done and successfully by many Portuguese migrants around the world. Andrea Klimt studied how Portuguese migrants in Germany portrayed what being Portuguese is about. Germany was one of the Western European countries which was evidently favoured by the Portuguese, considering it plays home to a population of 125,000 Portuguese migrants. Andrea...