Alexandre Caetano

My name is Alexandre Caetano and I am a businessman. I belong to a music distribution company (CD, DVD), all over the national territory. I travel nearly every day to do stock replenishment for my clients. I also research the market in order to get new clients. Whenever I can I help in terms of strategy and marketing which is the field that I specialized in at university.

On the differences of living in Portugal and in Ireland, I think they are huge, that is why many young Portuguese people are migrating to Ireland. From what I am aware of, Ireland holds in high account well trained people with a proactive attitude. In Portugal the companies (not all but most of them) prefer to recruit young non-¬graduates, so they don’t have to pay more. This attitude has severe consequences for Portugal’s economic growth, with a GDP always inferior to the European average. Year after year Portugal looses competitiveness and its population purchasing power.

Economically Ireland shows very good levels of growth and pays fair salaries. Here we have to pay more to get the same things and we earn less, there¬fore, we take longer to grow.

Another of the problems that causes the migration of young people is the lack of oppor¬tunities that there are in Portugal. With the unemployment rate increasing quickly re¬sulting from the relocation of big companies to other countries, there is just one way out for many people: to leave the country.

One more factor that makes Portugal less attractive has to do with the burden of taxes being quite high. After years of bad government, they can only increase the tax rates to try to fight the deficit of the public sector.

Finally, the entry of the Euro, although advantageous in many aspects, caused increases in the prices of goods, in many cases the cost doubled but salaries have not risen much.

I travel every day and often see companies closing down. The population is much in debt and there is no money for superfluous expenses and not even for savings. Portugal faces big challenges. One of them is to change the way of thinking in terms of recruiting skilled manpower. Young Portuguese people are becoming better trained but without opportunities of making a career, having to seek this in countries that will allow them to achieve their aspirations. After years spent studying they want to accomplish profes¬sional fulfilment.

Obviously Portugal has many good things: in terms of tourism it is a beautiful country, the gastronomy is excellent and the prices are appealing for people from other coun¬tries. We are a country of kind customs and usually we know how to welcome well those who visit us.

For what I feel and see, those who move to Ireland feel that they can be heard there, their attitude is appreciated and they can grow and achieve their aims faster. Many peo¬ple

do not want to come back and I understand why. There are too many problems for a country as small as ours. In Portugal the labour market is too small. It seems to me that Portuguese people in Ireland are happy enough to make a life there. That is Ana’s case who after spending years fighting for a better life, decided that it was worth trying to migrate. I do not do it because I have got my obligations and routes here and I am already settled, and despite all, with effort, I have been getting positive results.

The Irish culture and the mentality surprised me. For what I have seen on TV, Irish peo¬ple are united. If they have problems they join together to solve them and they welcome those who want to help them. In Portugal, a small country in almost all aspects, everyone fights for himself without visualizing a good future for all. Here what matters is the Present, and we think later about the future. I think there are a few generations starting to make some difference but there is still a lot of work to be done.

Many decades ago, migration allowed many people to achieve better living condi¬tions. People, unhappy with their home country, dream of a better life in another place rather than their own. A large number of people live in precarious conditions and they can just hope to be able to make the “jump” to a more fortunate condition when they move to another country. However, for many it does not happen and the poverty that they are subjected to, makes them hopeless people with serious problems. Therefore, the return home is inevitable.

Many people are willing to take big risks, such as going to a country unable to speak the language and without knowing what to expect. And there are people who take advan¬tage of that, exploiting these migrants. This is something that worries me seriously.

I am also aware of many cases of success. People from the Eastern European countries who have come to Portugal, today they have an honourable job, are legalized, have formed a family and some have been able to buy goods such as a car. This is a symptom of social integration. Sometimes the course of migration is an interesting phenomenon: not only for instance the arrival of one Brazilian or one Ukrainian but generally there are many people arriving and, after being settled in Portugal, they create their own communities promoting the culture of their home. Generally they are people motivated to work, they are kind and with an open mind. Many of them have a high level of education but, be¬cause they are not recognized here, they do all kinds of work in order to earn as much or more than they would be earning in their country of origin.

I would like to mention that the Portuguese government, in terms of migration, has had a policy of tolerance and some flexibility. It is recognized that the migrants who live in our country have been contributing to the development of the country, often doing things that the Portuguese do not want to do.

Of the Portuguese who migrate, I know they are people ready to do these things. Portu¬gal has 15 million people and 5 million of these are migrants spread all over the world. We are brave and ambitious people.

Ana Maria Silva

My name is Ana Maria and I am from Portugal. I have been in Northern Ireland for about two years, and currently I am working as a language teaching assistant of Portuguese in a well known University in Belfast.

My last job in Portugal was supervisor in a mobile phone company, which had nothing to do with my academic qualifications. I have a degree in Psychopedagogy, however I could not get a job in accordance with my qualifications in Portugal. That was the main reason that made me think of moving to another country. In Portugal I was not fulfilled and had the feeling that all the investment in my education had been pointless if I were not able to get a better job. It seems like in Portugal it does not matter what you know but who you know. It is a fact that the Portuguese economy does not give good prospects in terms of employment, not even to graduates, actually the tendency is that unemployment keeps going up among Portuguese graduates.

The reasons that made me choose Northern Ireland were: firstly, I had my sister, my brother-¬in-¬law and my nephew already living here so I would have a place to stay. I could have gone to England instead because I had a friend living there, who just like me could not get a job in Portugal and she moved to England where she was able to get a job as a vet. But I have chosen to stay with my sister because she was finding it very hard to be away from all the rest of my family. Secondly, I had attended a language course in English so the language did not represent a barrier to me.

At the beginning living in Northern Ireland was not very easy, I had some difficulties in getting a job. I registered myself in many employment agencies, probably all those in Portadown. I tried to talk with them about my skills and to show my qualifications, which are translated to English, but none of them showed any interest in them. It seems like these agencies just see migrants as suitable only for factory work. With no experience working in Northern Ireland, and no referees from here, I could not be very selective so I started to work in a factory and later in a hospital as catering assistant.

The job as language teaching assistant I just got last September and I was made aware of this position by the General Consul of Portugal in Northern Ireland, who is trying to help Portuguese migrants with qualifications to get better jobs here. I love teaching Portuguese, especially in that University. It also opened doors for me because from time to time there are some little jobs that come up, for example I was the Portuguese taster in an event in Belfast and I have been getting some translation and interpretation work as well. I would like to go back to my country but when I think about it two big reasons cross my mind: my boyfriend who is from here and the fact that Northern Ireland gives me better prospects for the future than Portugal. So I think I will be here for a while.

I have been living in Northern Ireland for more than two years now, and have never had a major problem related to being a migrant. I am aware that some other migrants haven’t had a stay in Northern Ireland that is as peaceful as I have, and there are really some cases of racism and discrimination.

One of those cases happened not long ago, in a well known retail store, some of the cleaners (who happened to be Portuguese) were constantly searched at the end of the shift by two managers who not only asked them to empty their pockets, but also touched them to assure that they hadn’t taken anything. This happened in the presence of other staff and even in the presence of their customers. At all times, there was never a reason given for these searches to be carried out and nothing was ever recovered. These incidents kept going until the workers sought advice and help from their union. As a first step, a formal complaint was lodged with management and those two managers were requested to make a formal apology.

There are a lot of other situations that, unfortunately, happen here in Northern Ireland which reveal racial prejudice towards migrant workers. I am aware that some migrants don’t have a good conduct, and that feeds the kind of prejudice described above, but I believe that everywhere there are some good people and some bad people, no matter the nationality. Therefore we should not all be labelled according to the misconduct of individuals, who have nothing to do with us, except for the fact that they come from the same country.

When I reflect about what I have seen in Northern Ireland, even not related to me, I realized that many people from Northern Ireland have the following image of the migrant:

A person who speaks poor English or none at all; A person who is not honest and tries to get as much benefits as possible; A person who does not pay taxes; A person who lives in an overcrowded house; A person who works for less money; A person related to criminal activities; A person who drives with no car insurance; A person with a low level of education.

On the other hand, there are other people from here that don’t share the same narrow vision of migrants. They are friendly, warm, good people who don’t make pre¬judgements and are willing to know us. I am very lucky to have met some of them. They know that I am totally the opposite of that image described above. I am:

A person who speaks English fluently; A person who works and doesn’t have any benefit; A person who pays all taxes; A person who lives in a normal family environment; A person who works for the same money as any Irish worker with the same post; A person who is not connected to criminal activities; A person who has the car taxed and insured; A person with a high level of education,

I hope Irish people who have the prejudiced image of migrants start to see us as individuals, because we are all different, and not as a pack.

Chris Clenaghan

My name is Chris Clenaghan. I’m 23 years of age and have lived in Northern Ireland all my life. I am the second of eight children, I have two brothers and five sisters. Born in Lisburn, I lived in Lurgan until I started school, at which point our family moved out to the countryside to live on my grandmother’s farm while our new house was being built.

I stayed in school until June 2000 after my GCSE exams were over. Since then I have had some fairly undesirable jobs, such as: cleaning, weighing, tagging and freezing animals in a slaughter house; working in a 24-hour service station as sales assistant, forecourt at¬tendant, handyman and night staff. I’ve worked in bars and restaurants, at one point in a hospital and a golf club as barman, waiter, kitchen porter/hygienist. I’m currently a night valet for the Northern Ireland Rail Service and am the only member of the crew originally from Ireland, each of my co-¬workers are migrants. I work with five Portuguese people whose English is of a good standard, we can communicate well with little diffi¬culty.

Although I left school right after my exams, I continued to learn new skills. I enrolled in a full time computer course entitled ‘Developing Software Programs’ where I accom¬plished a series of exams in website design and creation. Here I also obtained my ‘Euro¬pean Computer Drivers Licence’ (ECDL).

I have enjoyed being able to travel the world and experience a whole range of different cultures’ customs, lifestyles, fashions, diets etc. In my current passport I have stamps from: California, Canada, Cyprus, Egypt, Israel, and Turkey. I hope to add Portugal later this year and possibly Italy in coming years.

Now I find myself asking how my life would be different had I grown up or moved to live in another country, being on holiday only allows me to experience new places briefly but not enough to know if I could make a life for myself there. Travelling like this has given me the chance to broaden my horizons in many ways. For example, my views of ethnic minority groups within the community; by experimenting with how and what I cook, I have learned to try new and often exciting dishes whilst on holiday.

Two years ago I moved out of my parent’s home and bought a house with my brother just outside of town, now I live alone in that house. I am learning all about mortgages, insurances and bills now, (truth be told it's very scary stuff).

My girlfriend is Portuguese and migrated to Ireland about two years ago. We met while we both worked in Craigavon Hospital as Catering Assistants. Her English is impeccable and she has been teaching me Portuguese.

Over the past six years I have worked closely with French, Polish, Portuguese and Brazilian colleagues. In most cases everyone gets along and works well together, however, there’s always someone out to make trouble.

I have noticed there are some migrants in my current employment, who speak about me in my presence, using their native tongue and thinking that in my ignorance I won’t under¬stand what they say. There are things I cannot pick up from conversation because the language is spoken so fast, I can’t help but feel like a complete outsider in my own coun¬try. My Portuguese is so poor I can’t really engage in conversation using their language. As English is the language spoken by most people in Ireland why should I have to change? One of my colleagues also refuses to use English around me; this girl can speak English fluently and yet won’t, she will ask me for things in Portuguese, tell me how to do my job in Portuguese.

I spent a week in Portugal recently with my girlfriend and I did my very best to use all I had learned to speak with her friends and family and even though I found it a challenge asking for things in shops, restaurants etc. I managed to get by.

I spoke their language in their country, why can’t they extend to me the same courtesy?

A lot of people seem to label migrants with a preconceived prejudice against those of a foreign nationality. This became most apparent to me when my girlfriend told me what happened when she brought her C.V. into all the local recruitment agencies hoping to find employment in her chosen field of Psychology, for which she is aptly qualified, but all they offered her was factory/production line work, not taking any heed of her profes¬sional qualifications, instead looking only at her nationality and putting her in a dead-¬end job with no real future prospects or promotion opportunities.

We have heard some stories from Portuguese friends of ours about how they have been treated by members of the public. One particular instance that sticks in my mind was a girl who worked the checkout of a large supermarket. A middle-¬aged woman ap¬proached her at the counter and very rudely asked, “Why are ‘you people’ coming over here and taking our jobs?” To which she simply replied, “We’re doing the jobs you would¬n’t do”.

It wasn’t until I worked in a nearby golf course that I realised just how accommodating and helpful people can be when they try. One of our kitchen porters was a Polish guy who could speak little or no English, but that didn’t impede his work or stop him from having a laugh with the rest of the staff. Because we had a Polish chef and Polish wait¬ress who could translate for us, at least one of them would work the same shifts to help him understand what was being asked of him, when his breaks were and so on.