Origins

Portugal, the ancestral homeland of Portuguese immigrants and their descendants in Canada, traces its origins as an independent country to 1139. Located along the western edge of the Iberian peninsula, and with more than 800 kilometres of coastline along the Atlantic Ocean, Portugal’s history has been profoundly influenced by its relationship to the sea. The country comprises two distinct parts: continental Portugal with about 10 million inhabitants, and two offshore groups of islands, the Azores and Madeira, each with over a quarter million people. Despite their relatively smaller size and population, the islands, in particular the Azores, have been an important source of Portuguese immigration to Canada.

Portuguese is a Romance language which has been the official language of the country since the second half of the thirteenth century. Within Portugal itself, the language is characterized by a high degree of homogenization and lack of strong dialectal variations, although there are clear differences in accents between Portuguese speakers from the European continent and those from the islands.

Aside from language, religion has been an important factor in the country’s social and cultural integration. The vast majority of Portuguese have always been Roman Catholics, even if at various times the country has experienced anti-clerical movements that have tried to undermine the role of the church.

The Portuguese trace their origins to the Lusitanians, an Iberian tribe that spread throughout what is today Portugal as early as the third millennium B.C.E. That ancient name appeared again as the province of Lusitania during the Roman Empire (27 B.C.E. to the fourth century C.E.), and it is still used by some immigrants who may refer to themselves and their organizations as Luso-Canadian.

Even before becoming an independent state in the twelfth century, Portuguese merchants were active in trading along Europe’s entire Atlantic seaboard. Beginning in the fifteenth century, Portuguese traders and explorers struck out beyond Europe and began exploring the coasts of Africa, the Arabian peninsula, India, and the Far East as well as South America. During this age of discovery, in which figures like Prince Henry the Navigator played a dominant role, Portugal established colonies and trade centres ( feitoria ). By the sixteenth century, Portuguese fisherman made regular voyages in search of fish off the coasts of eastern Canada.

Portugal’s position as a major colonial power began to be seriously undermined during the nineteenth century following the loss of Brazil (1822) and a series of economic and internal political crises. The country’s monarchy, led by the House of Braganza since the mid-seventeenth century, was overthrown in 1910 and a democratic republic was established. The republic, in turn, was replaced in 1926 by an authoritarian dictatorship later to be led by António Oliveira Salazar. He formed a state based on corporate principles, and his authoritarian regime was to last until 1974. Under Salazar, Portugal managed to remain neutral during World War II, and its anti-Communist position allowed for normal relations with neighbouring Spain and the rest of the non-Communist western world during the post-war era.

Despite political stability at home, Portugal’s agriculturally based economy stagnated. While the rest of western Europe experienced economic recovery during the 1950s and 1960s, Portugal became one of the poorest countries on the continent. In an attempt to address the employment needs of an increasing population, the government encouraged the Portuguese to emigrate, whether as guest workers in western European countries or as permanent immigrants to the United States and Canada. Economic conditions continued to worsen, however. This was in large part the result of costs connected with years of military struggle that began in the 1960s, when Portugal attempted to hold on to its remaining overseas colonies.

Political tension increased until Salazar’s successor was overthrown by a military coup in April 1974. Most of the colonies were lost and thousands of soldiers and colonial administrators returned home. Eventually, free elections were held and a democratic government was installed. Unburdened by its overseas colonies, Portugal drew increasingly closer to other states on the continent and in 1986 joined the European Community. Since that time, Portugal has become further integrated into Europe, it has attracted foreign investment, and its economy has improved to such a degree that out-migration has declined and some immigrants are returning home where prospects are better than in countries abroad.

Migration

The very recent decline in out-migration from Portugal is in sharp contrast to most of the past century, when an estimated four million people left their homeland in search of a better life abroad. This century-long emigration from Portugal is normally divided into what are called the Brazilian, American, and European periods: (1) 1886 to 1950, when an estimated 1.2 million Portuguese went to Brazil; (2) 1950 to 1960, when Brazil was joined by other South American countries, the United States, and Canada as the most popular destination; and (3) 1970-1990s, when most Portuguese have migrated, often on temporary work permits to nearby France, Germany, and other western European countries.

Portuguese immigration to Canada began in the early 1950s, but historical contacts date back to the fifteenth century, when Portuguese and English navigators reached Canada’s Atlantic coast in search of the Orient. From the sixteenth century on, Portuguese, French, and Basque fishermen, attracted by plentiful fish stocks around the south and east coasts of Newfoundland and the Straits of Belle Isle, caught cod and dried them ashore. Names of Portuguese origin are found along the Atlantic coast of Canada. For example, “Labrador,” first applied to the coast of Greenland, probably derives from the explorer João Fernandes, a “lavrador” (farmer) of Terceira (Azores). Other examples include Terra Nova (Newfoundland); Ilha Roxa (Red Island), y dos bacalhaos (Baccalieu Island), y do fogo (Fogo Island), and y de frey luis (Cape Freels); and C. de São Jorge (Cape St George), C. Rei (Cape Ray), and S. Maria (Cape St Mary’s).

Between 1900 and 1949,approximately 500 Portuguese entered Canada, the majority probably illegally. In the 1950s Canada sought agricultural and railway-construction workers from Portugal; 17,114 immigrants arrived in that decade. Sponsorship and family reunification accelerated the process in the 1960s (59,677 newcomers) and 1970s (79,891). Since the mid-1970s fewer Portuguese immigrants have been arriving, partly because of changes to Canadian law in 1973. Modest increases in the late 1980s may be the result of Portuguese claiming refugee status. In the 1980s 38,187 Portuguese entered Canada.

The majority of Portuguese immigrants came from the Azores, particularly from the island of São Miguel. Certain writers and the Portuguese consulate in Toronto number Portuguese Canadians at between 300,000 and 500,000. The 1991 census recorded 292,185 Portuguese of single (84 percent) and multiple (16 percent) origin combined.

Arrival and Settlement

Four decades after their first arrival in Canada, the Portuguese have communities from coast to coast. In 1991 most lived in Ontario (202,395), Quebec (42,975), British Columbia (23,380), Alberta (9,755), and Manitoba (9,530). Though many came to work on farms or railways, most settled in cities. In 1991 Toronto had 124,325 residents of Portuguese origin; Montreal, 32,330; Kitchener, Ontario, 13,755; Hamilton, 9,625; Vancouver, 9,255; Winnipeg, 7,970; Ottawa-Hull, 6,580; London, 6,330; and Edmonton, 4,685.

The pioneers lived in deteriorated, low-income, working-class neighbourhoods in the heart of the cities, on the margins of emerging central business districts, near jobs and transportation. The majority were single individuals who resided in low-rental flats, tenements, and rooming-houses – often with relatives or friends from the same village/region of Portugal – in order to save to buy a house and to bring over relatives from Portugal.

Portuguese colonies began taking shape in the 1960s. The steady increase in immigration and the constant arrival of entire families, through chain sponsorship, consolidated immigrant neighbourhoods. Often two or three families shared the same house or apartment/flat. The majority of these immigrants came from rural areas of Portugal, particularly in the Azores, and lacked knowledge of English or French, skills, and money. These districts functioned as reception areas, offering information and security, but also tended to isolate Portuguese from the host society.

Portuguese communities in Canada tend to be self-contained and self-sufficient. Their remarkable level of institutional completeness is demonstrated by the number of social and cultural institutions (198, including 111 in Ontario), religious institutions (thirty-eight churches), and ethnic businesses (over forty-six hundred, with some thirty-five hundred in Ontario), most located within the core of the communities. In 1981 Portuguese Canadians were among the most segregated groups in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver.

Between the mid-1970s and 1991 settlement patterns and geographical distribution changed. Some new immigrants, particularly those who arrived after 1975, had better education and some skills and experience and did not settle in the core of Portuguese communities. Further, many chose to live near their sponsors and relatives. Gradually new settlements emerged away from the core, and even in the suburbs. As well, the original Portuguese communities have expanded into adjacent neighbourhoods, such as Italian districts. Some first-generation families, now more affluent, wish to acquire their “dream house,” preferably in the suburbs. Thus Portuguese communities in Canada are in transition from isolation to integration and/or assimilation.

This dispersion has not yet greatly affected ethnic institutions, businesses, and services. Even if people move away, a significant number regularly go to the core to shop, work, and participate in social, religious, and cultural events. It is not clear, however, whether these areas will be able to retain much of their Portuguese identity.

Economic Life

The early Portuguese immigrants came to work in agriculture and railway construction. Family members or friends who later joined them were employed in construction, services, and industry. Networks of contacts used on arrival largely determined immigrants’ job opportunities. Thus early immigrants commonly worked, beside compatriots, for a Portuguese employer. Quite often both the employer and co-workers were from the same region or island of Portugal and had helped the newcomer find a job.

A recent study of Portuguese home buyers in Mississauga shows that 72 percent of first-generation respondents were sponsored by a family member. In the past, sponsorship reunified entire families and helped create Portuguese neighbourhoods. More than 70 percent of respondents also indicated that friends or relatives helped them find a first job and housing as well as choose the city or neighbourhood in which they first lived.

Portuguese women generally did not work on arrival, either because they had large families to look after or because their husbands did not want them to work – in some regions or islands of Portugal women did not take jobs outside the home. Most had been sponsored by their husbands and had little education (less than four years of school, on average) and no skills but housework. Those who entered the paid labour market tended to become segregated in the garment industry, as cleaners or domestics, or in services. Their unfamiliarity with English and French and their lack of special skills relegated them to repetitive piece work, low wages, and often demeaning conditions.

Men and women were hampered by their ignorance of, or unfamiliarity with, Canadian labour legislation and their lack of strong representation in unions. However, they have made significant gains in the last decade. For example, in 1974 Portuguese-Canadian women, in a historic labour struggle with the Toronto Dominion Centre in downtown Toronto, refused to work, in protest against reuse of dirty garbage bags that had made some of them ill. As well, Portuguese-Canadian men have sought positions of leadership in unions.

In 1981 the majority of Portuguese in Canada had less than nine years of schooling. This was reflected in employment: manufacturing and construction accounted for nearly 47 percent of jobs; offices or sales and services, 37 percent; and administration, science, health, teaching, and the arts, 5.8 percent. The majority of the first generation have remained in unskilled and semi-skilled occupations. Manual labourers have acquired the reputation of being hard-working, reliable, and thrifty. However, more recent immigrants, particularly those after 1975, and the second generation appear less segregated occupationally; they have greater opportunities for education, higher job status, and larger incomes.

A study in Toronto found incomes among Portuguese Canadians lower than those of other ethnic groups. However, some families attain considerable incomes, sometimes higher than those of the majority of Canadians, particularly if several members contribute. Despite their low-job status and low income, Portuguese-Canadian households nonetheless manage to achieve a certain economic stability and often attain the ultimate goal – home ownership – once established in Canada. Indeed, Portuguese Canadians are known for their high levels of home ownership.

Community Life

Portuguese communities are differentiated by social class, politics, and region, replicating the class structure of Portuguese society, but in this country the major distinction is between the working class and community leaders. Unlike the working class, the elite lacks a sense of common purpose, and its leadership often reflects self-interest. Despite the institutional completeness of their major communities, Portuguese Canadians have been criticized for the absence of umbrella organizations and unity and for their minimal participation in Canadian political and social-cultural life. For example, its own key members, and particularly the Portuguese ethnic press, have criticized jealousy and divisiveness among community leaders. There is also a feeling that lack of unity has prevented defence of the community’s social, political, and cultural interests.

Most Portuguese in Canada are of the first generation and do not participate in the Canadian mainstream, probably because of the conditions under which they lived before emigrating. As a former Portuguese consul in Toronto noted: “In Portugal, there is very little tradition of community involvement in anything ... These people grew up knowing there were those who governed and those who were governed. It never occurred to them to have any input in anything at all. They just don’t understand that.”

Some Portuguese argue that disunity is a serious problem, while others see failure to create umbrella organizations as reflecting the national “personality.” For example, there has been in the last two decades a proliferation of small Portuguese clubs and associations, some of which never got beyond the stage of good intentions. But as the community comes of age, and the new generations mature, some of the current dilemmas may well vanish.

Yet changing demographic patterns do bring new challenges. Some Portuguese institutions have very few members and even fewer new recruits. According to influential Portuguese Canadians, the new generations are less involved and interested in the community’s institutions. Given the steady decrease in immigration, leaders are trying to attract younger people. Those who advocate greater unity tend to argue that the Portuguese in Canada form close-knit communities, with the family as the central institution. Crisis, in the community or in the homeland, has brought prompt response. On several occasions members have raised funds to finance community projects and help those in need – for example, after the earthquake that shook the Azores in January 1980 and more recently (1996 and 1997) the floods that struck the island of São Miguel.

Also important to Portuguese are the types of contacts they have with members of the same ethnic background. In the survey on recent home buyers in Mississauga, almost 84 percent of respondents still had frequent contacts with their previous area of residence – usually the Portuguese community in Toronto. They would visit relatives and friends, shop on weekends, or attend cultural or social events there at least once a week. Similar patterns of interaction can be found among Portuguese in Vancouver and Montreal.

The move to the suburbs often produces an initial period of isolation and stress. Women seem to suffer the most. Overwork at home and in the workplace, together with problems of adjustment, can lead to fatigue and depression. As well, leisure activities are confined almost exclusively to visiting the family and shopping.

Portuguese Canadians have attained a remarkable level of community organization, setting up social, cultural, and religious institutions as well as ethnic businesses and information services in their own language, in an effort to re-create their culture and traditions in the new world. Their institutions are not only meeting places but a means of promoting their language and culture, sponsoring educational, social, and recreational activities, and assisting immigrants. These institutions thus bridge generational and cultural differences and help immigrants adapt to their new home.

The last fifteen years have seen emergence of organizations such as the Federação Luso-Canadiana de Empresários e Profissionais (Federation of Portuguese-Canadian Businessmen and Professionals), the Aliança dos Clubes e Associações Portuguesas de Ontário (Alliance of Portuguese Clubs and Associations of Ontario), the Câmara de Comércio e Industria Canadá-Portugal (Canadá-Portugal Chamber of Commerce and Industry), the Associação dos Empresários Portugueses de Winnipeg (Association of Portuguese Businesses of Winnipeg), the Alianç a dos Profissionais e Empresários do Québec (Alliance des Professionnels et Entrepreneurs Portugais du Québec), and the Chambre du Commerce Portugais du Québec.

After several failed attempts to set up a national, umbrella organization, the creation in 1993 of the Congresso Nacional Luso-Canadiano (Portuguese-Canadian National Congress) has brought together cultural organizations and people from coast to coast. Its purpose is to provide members with a voice at the national level on social, cultural, and economic issues and to stimulate Portuguese participation in all aspects of Canadian society. It also intends to be a bridge between Portuguese communities and to lobby municipal, provincial, and federal governments.

At this stage, Portuguese-Canadian organizations do not yet satisfy the new generations. If they are to do so, they must give Portuguese women and youths a more active voice.

Family and Kinship

Portuguese immigrants in Canada esteem the family. Emigration can be disruptive, and yet Portuguese-Canadian families, despite the initial cultural shock, have retained many of their cultural traits. Many first-generation families are more conservative than their contemporaries in Portugal; their values have remained static since their arrival, while Portuguese society has been transformed.

Portuguese families in Canada, particularly those of the first generation, have a hierarchical structure and strong ties. They have been described as a source of conservatism, supported by a patriarchal system in which the husband dominates. The father is generally a loyal and hard worker, but at home he expects uncontested obedience from his wife and children. Husbands often tightly control their wives and children through economic means and/or by influencing interactions outside the home.

Other Portuguese traditions have also survived in Canada. For example, men are not expected to do “women’s jobs” at home, such as preparing food or looking after the children. This male behaviour can be a source of conflict and tension within the family. However, the Portuguese-Canadian family is not static, and new generations have challenged its traditional patterns.

Often socio-economic pressures, such as the wish to buy a house, force Portuguese women to enter the paid workforce. The women then have two jobs: full-time worker and traditional homemaker. This excessive burden frequently affects women’s health. A doctor serving the Portuguese community in Toronto has commented on the difficulty of convincing these women that their symptoms may stem from their way of life, not from an organic disease. Fatigue is frequent, and depression, frigidity, and functional complaints may result. Women’s emancipation has been gradual, but changes in sex roles may reconfigure the Portuguese-Canadian family.

Portuguese immigrants have sought to reconstitute their families here. In the 1960s and 1970s sponsorship and family reunification led to chain migration, which reunited entire families in Canada. This type of immigration influenced areas of settlement and job opportunities. Relatives and friends often assist each other in buying and renovating a home, sometimes to repay help given in getting them started in Canada. Ethnic and kin-based labour and information-exchange networks enabled Portuguese to renovate dilapidated neighbourhoods, such as Saint-Louis in Montreal and Kensington in Toronto. Strong social networks have also reinforced tight-knit communities. Areas of Portuguese settlement and concentration have helped preserve traditional values and customs. In a recent survey, 90 percent of Portuguese respondents said that they were married to another Portuguese.

Portuguese-Canadian households are often large, with 4.4 persons per household on average, compared to 2.9 persons for other households. Families generally have more children, as the first generation tends to have large families and many children live with their parents longer than do non-Portuguese. Respondents indicated more earners per family than non-Portuguese. Grandparents are respected and highly valued by families, which perceive caring for the elderly as their responsibility. Quite often grandparents assist in the rearing of their grandchildren.

In 1981, 57 percent of Portuguese in Canada were married, with very few being divorced (0.7 percent) or separated (0.9 percent). For many Portuguese women, particularly in the first generation, divorce or separation is not considered an alternative to marital problems such as wife beating. Fear of criticism from family and of ostracism by the community still keep many Portuguese women in difficult marriages, as does lack of knowledge of French or English, as well as of their own legal rights and where to look for help. In the words of one influential member of the community: “The closer you are to the family the better it is ... because having a family member near you can make things easier for you ... It’s important to buy a house near the family, and everyone helps each other and that’s a good way to cope with isolation.”

Almost half of Portuguese Canadians in one survey indicated that most of their friends are of Portuguese background. Yet for the second generation too much contact with and proximity to people of the same ethnic background can be a problem. As a result the generations get into conflict, with the first generation striving to draw together and maintain the extended family, and the younger trying to distance itself from the community.

In dating and marriage, parents continue to have influence over their children’s decisions. They tend to be over-protective, particularly of their daughters. Parents’ attitudes are often challenged by their children, becoming a major cause of friction. Parents in the first generation had greater difficulties adapting to a new milieu than Portuguese parents born and educated in Canada.

Gradual changes, however, seem to be taking place. In a survey for The Toronto Star in 1992, 96 percent of Portuguese Canadians approved of their children mixing and socializing with non-Portuguese friends; 95 percent, of their dating someone not Portuguese; and 94 percent, of their marrying outside the group. Only 75 percent would approve of their children marrying outside the Catholic faith.

The Portuguese-Canadian family is evolving in ways that may soon lead to new types of relations between husbands and wives and between parents and children. It is unclear how long the stability of Portuguese families in Canada will be able to resist assimilation.

Culture

A 1992 survey of several ethnic groups in Toronto revealed that the Portuguese felt most strongly about retaining their language and culture and passing them on. Portuguesismo – a complex set of interrelated cultural characteristics, including language, values, traditions, and way of life – continues among immigrants settled in Canada.

Many Portuguese feel that their culture in Canada is in transition. The language – a crucial symbol of ethnic identity and a transmitter of culture – is also in a transitional phase, with the young using Portuguese mainly at home and English or French in public. A Portuguese-Canadian journalist in Toronto wrote: “An overriding preoccupation of this still young community is that of the children speaking one language and the parents another; this is becoming one of the main indicators of the problems and conflicts of the generation gap.”

In the 1991 census 211,040 people reported Portuguese as their mother tongue, ranking it fourth after Italian, Chinese, and German among non-official languages. Portuguese was also among the most reported home languages – claimed by approximately 153,000 people. Ontario has the most people whose mother tongue is Portuguese – 149,065. Metropolitan Toronto has 65,175 of them, and in the city of Toronto, with 44,955, Portuguese is the most-reported non-official language.

Already there is evidence of a mother-tongue shift, particularly among the new generations. Immigrants, generally unilingual on arrival, frequently learn a second language – English or French – at work and use Portuguese with family members and friends, though many remain essentially unilingual. (A study of the Portuguese communities in Paris and Montreal suggests that a new language – “immigrês” – is emerging there.)

The degree of acceptance and maintenance of the language in the new generations differs for Azoreans and mainlanders. The large majority of Azoreans do not intend to return to Portugal and feel little need to maintain the language. Many mainlanders, however, plan to return one day and therefore want to keep up their language and culture.

Portuguese who arrived in Canada at an early age or were born in this country tend to use their mother tongue only with parents and grandparents. They use French or English not only outside the home but also with brothers and sisters. This creates a linguistic and cultural separation between generations. The gradual diminution of the first generation may dissipate the strength of the language.

Portuguese-Canadian festas attract people from other parts of Canada and from the United States during summer. The Dia de Portugal, de Camões e das Comunidades (Day of Portugal) is celebrated every year on 10 June – a tribute to the sixteenth-century poet Luís de Camões and to Portuguese immigrants. Social, cultural, and sporting events sometimes extend over a week or longer. Ranchos (folklore groups) are part of any major community festival. Almost every Portuguese community in Canada has its own banda de música (marching band), which participates, mainly during summer, in events in and outside the communities.

The fado is a nostalgic and melancholy national song, sung to a guitar accompaniment; in the Azorean cantigas ao dasafio two singers extemporize in rhyme on a theme. Some fado singers in Canada, such as Armando Costa (“Rilhas”) and Fátima Ferreira, and musician Mariano do Rego (who plays the Portuguese guitar), perform frequently to Portuguese communities in North America as well as in Portugal. As well, a new generation of artists is appearing – for example, Américo Ribeiro. Another well-known artist Portuguese-Canadian artist, Alberto de Castro of Toronto, died in 1995.

Immigrants have continued other customs such as wine making, slaughtering pigs ( matança do porco ), and Portuguese cuisine. The first generation continues cooking in the Portuguese manner, using traditional products, such as olive oil, dried cod, sausages, and homemade bread. Home-made wine remains very popular and is an essential part of meals. Ethnic food, and particularly the making and testing of wines, bring families together. Portuguese groceries, bakeries, fish stores, and restaurants, with products imported from the homeland and with a distinctive atmosphere, contribute to maintenance of Portuguese cuisine in Canada. They provide familiar products and services in Portuguese.

Portuguese communities in Canada have supported many publications – fifty newspapers, thirty-seven bulletins, and seventeen magazines. Toronto was the source of half of all publications, with Montreal also a major centre. Of the major newspapers, Luso-Canadiano (Luso-Canadian; Montreal, 1958–71) was followed by Voz de Portugal (Voice of Portugal; Montreal, 1961– ), and Correio Português (Portuguese Courier; Toronto, 1963– ).

Through the years, the Portuguese media (newspapers, radio, and television) have promoted their own language and culture and linked the cultures of the homeland and Canada. Neither Portuguese nor Canadian social scientists have made much use of these records in studying the Portuguese presence in Canada and its contributions.

Education

Most pre-1975 Portuguese immigrants came to Canada with little education. In a survey of rural immigrants settled in Toronto, 6.5 percent had no formal schooling, 66 percent reported primary education (four years of school), and 27 percent had some secondary education. In Canada 59 percent of Portuguese respondents did not continue their education, inhibited by their age on arrival (more than eighteen years), their circumstances, and their level of schooling in Portugal. Only 17 percent, mainly those who arrived when they were young, attended elementary or high school, and 10 percent completed high school in Canada, Apparently, however, the more recent immigrants have more education.

Portuguese Canadians have developed a remarkable network of community schools – ten in western Canada, thirty-two in Ontario, and five in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces. First-generation immigrants with minimal knowledge of English or French who used Portuguese at home wanted their children to learn Portuguese. Prospects of returning to the homeland, particularly for those from the mainland, have influenced some parents’ decisions to send their children to Portuguese-language schools. In the late 1950s small community classes took place in Montreal’s Associação Portuguesa do Canadá (Portuguese Association of Canadá ). In Ontario’s thirty-two Portuguese schools in 1993 approximately five thousand students (half of them in Toronto) attended classes on Saturdays or after regular school hours.

These schools were instrumental in getting Portuguese introduced in several Canadian public schools. In Toronto the school of the First Portuguese Canadian Club promoted the language and helped secure its inclusion in the Heritage Language Program. In 1992–93, 640 students were registered at the club’s Portuguese school, while about ten thousand separate-school and twenty-five hundred public-system students attended heritage-language classes in Portuguese.

Many factors seem to inhibit Portuguese children’s education. Parents’ lack of knowledge of English or French and of the Canadian school system hinders communication with teachers and students. Parents’ failure to encourage children to continue their schooling may also explain the low level of education. The Toronto Board of Education in 1982 found that Portuguese-Canadian grade eight students did not feel that they had the ability to succeed at university. For economic reasons, such as buying a house, discharging debts in Portugal, or paying for the wedding of a daughter, many parents force their children to leave school as soon as possible to supplement the family income. Some were afraid that their daughters would start dating boys and forced them to leave school. As in Portugal, parents considered that their daughters needed less education than their sons.

Other factors lead to a high level of drop-outs, including individual maladjustment, family cultural shock, and inappropriate academic programming. Canadian schools have often streamed Portuguese-Canadian students into vocational rather than academic programs. Parents in Toronto formed the Associação dos Pais Portugueses de Toronto (Toronto Portuguese Parents’ Association) in 1981 to protect the interests of their children. Positive changes have taken place in the last decade, partly because of concerted campaigns by school boards, with assistance from parents, members of the community, and Portuguese-Canadian university students. Efforts have been made to convince parents of the importance of education, to discourage streaming, and to encourage elementary-school children to stay in school. In 1995 Portuguese parents, educators, students, and community organizations joined forces to establish the Coliga ão Luso-Canadiana para uma Melhor Educa ão/Portuguese Canadian Coalition for Better Education.

Members of Portuguese communities in Canada recognize that much needs to be done about education. Members of the second generation have entered colleges and universities, and women are also gaining access to higher education – in some universities even outnumbering the men.

Religion

For Portuguese immigrants, particularly of the first generation, the family and the church are the two central institutions. Some 80 to 90 percent of Portuguese Canadians are Roman Catholic, and religion influences both individual beliefs and collective decision making. However, some Portuguese in Canada belong to Protestant denominations, which have attracted many Portuguese members in the last two decades.

Quite often the first step in bringing Portuguese Canadians together was the appointment of a Portuguese-speaking priest. Both church and priest assisted in settlement and adjustment. Priests provided religious services in Portuguese and also helped resolve everyday problems. Settlement around the church made possible close contacts between families and their priest. As in Portugal, so in Canada the priest often becomes a close friend and a confidant in both religious and secular matters.

Portuguese churches in Canada have been a key element in ethnic maintenance. For instance, the Portuguese Catholic Mission in Vancouver (Missão Católica Portuguesa) organized religious festivals for the feast days of Our Lady of Fátima (Nossa Senhora de Fatima) and Senhor Santo Cristo dos Milagres (Christ of Miracles), and sponsored social and cultural events – parish dances, a Portuguese-language school and radio program, bands, folk groups, and a soccer team.

Since the mid-1950s, when Portuguese services started, several Portuguese parishes have flourished in settlement areas in Montreal, Toronto, and Vancouver. As the earlier Italian residents moved out, the Portuguese took over Italian churches. In 1993 Portuguese Canadians had some thirty-eight parishes – five in Quebec and the Atlantic provinces, twenty-six in Ontario, and seven in the west.

The church is trying to adapt to changes in suburban Portuguese communities, building churches in Brampton, Mississauga, Oakville, and Scarborough in the Toronto area and Laval, near Montreal. Residential projects such as Terra Nova, a senior citizens’ residence, and Terra Bela in Toronto resulted from the efforts of the Reverend Alberto Cunha. In a society where many institutions remain alien to the immigrant, such projects can be a haven.

Portuguese Canadians like church ritual to resemble what they left behind, and most of their priests came directly from Portugal. The Igreja Immaculada Concei ão (Immaculate Conception Church) in Winnipeg was designed by a Portuguese architect, Gustavo da Roza. The interiors of Portuguese churches are filled with images of familiar saints. Members of the community may choose as their patron saint one that is familiar from their region or island or origin. Rites of passage such as baptism, marriage, and funerals are very important, even among non-practising Catholics.

Religious festivals include Senhor da Pedra and Divino Espírito Santo (Holy Spirit), which has roots in the Azores. Among the most popular is the Christ of Miracles festival, transplanted to Canada by Azoreans and held for the first time in Toronto in 1966 and now across Canada. This colourful event mingles the sacred and the profane; usually the outside of Igreja De Santa Maria (St Mary’s Church) in Toronto’s Portugal Square is decorated with lights and ornaments, and in the parade some worshippers crawl on their knees. A statue of Christ of Miracles is carried in a procession along Adelaide Street and surrounding streets to the church, followed by clergymen, marching bands, and the faithful, carrying large candles. Afterwards an outdoor mass is celebrated. The festivities also include rides, games, music, food, and a bazaar.

Despite the zeal of and the work done by most Portuguese priests, some clerical activity was interpreted as authoritarian and as interference in the community. Some Portuguese Canadians have criticized the clergy for exerting too much influence in religious and social life, while providing inadequate guidance. There is also a feeling that the second generation has gradually been losing interest in religious practice, though it is not yet clear to what extent it has changed its religious beliefs.

Politics

Portuguese Canadians have not participated much in political life. As a group they have not exerted influence through their voting behaviour. In the words of a Portuguese-Canadian journalist from Toronto: “A unica política que os Portugueses têm é a do trabalho” (The only politics that Portuguese have is the one of work). In general, Portuguese communities have not been very cohesive and have lacked the political awareness necessary to defend and promote the community’s interests and rights.

Small groups coalesced around the Movimento Democr ático Português de Montreal (Portuguese Democratic Movement of Montreal), founded in 1964, and Toronto’s Associação Democrática Portuguesa (Portuguese-Canadian Democratic Association), established in 1957, which opposed the regime of Salazar and later of Caetano in Portugal.

In the mid-1980s the first Portuguese-Canadian separate-school trustee, António Letra, was elected in Toronto. In 1988 Martinho Silva was elected councillor in Toronto’s Ward 4, a substantially Portuguese area. Since then, Mário Silva (Toronto), António Sousa (Hull, Quebec), and Amaro Silva (Winnipeg) have been elected to city councils. In 1995 Carlos de Faria of Mississauga, Ontario, became the first Portuguese Canadian to be elected to a provincial legislature, and in 1997 Luís Miranda was elected major of Quebec City. Several Portuguese Canadians have also been elected school trustees.

The first generation has shown what Portuguese writers have called a certain political “backwardness,” even an aversion for things political. The Salazar regime prevented citizens from gaining any political education or experience. For first-generation Portuguese, politics and community involvement have been minor concerns, and distrust or fear of anyone in government, or of anyone in a position of power, has been common. The isolation of Azoreans during the dictatorship reached extreme proportions, aggravated by geographical distance. Even now relatively few immigrants are registered to vote, which helps explain the absence of a strong “community vote.” Candidates of Portuguese background therefore need to form coalitions with other ethnic groups (such as Italians), which have greater political experience.

Intergroup Relations, Group Maintenance, and Ethnic Commitment

The majority of Portuguese immigrants came to Canada to stay, and this in itself is a strong incentive for integration. With varying degrees of loyalty to their cultural heritage, Portuguese Canadians seem to be integrating well. However, high concentrations of Portuguese have inhibited adjustment and fostered socio-cultural isolation. Thus, while attachment to traditional values can add to the multicultural tapestry, it may also block interaction with other groups. Community leaders feel that the Portuguese should become more actively involved in organizations outside the community.

Numerous signs suggest integration of Portuguese without their full assimilation. The move to the suburbs appears to indicate integration. A social worker from Toronto declared: “Portuguese who leave downtown Toronto think differently. They free themselves a little more ... There are a lot of problems in downtown Toronto ... When they leave Toronto and go to cities such as Mississauga they become more independent and sometimes it seems that the acculturation or integration process increases.”

The integration of first-generation Portuguese is gradual. In a 1992 study of Portuguese home buyers in Mississauga, 50 percent indicated that they had no contacts with the Portuguese community in that city. When asked for reasons, 80 percent said that they needed more time to become familiar, and the remainder had no intention of participating. Some responses were: “I am not culturally oriented”; “I consider myself Canadian”; “I want to be part of the Canadian society ... I lived for a long time only among Portuguese.”

The majority of Portuguese entered Canada through sponsorship, and some families, in their move to the suburbs, tried to maintain these ties by resettling close to kin, but for others such proximity was not important. Some moved in search of “privacy,” which meant not living among or near Portuguese neighbours. These families are more or less comfortable with the English language and the suburban way of life.

A Portuguese-Canadian researcher found similar conditions in Vancouver. For the first generation ethnic affiliation and within-group interaction are not homogeneous or uniform. Though the vast majority (95 percent) of Portuguese interviewed have similar patterns of ethnic identification (indicating some degree of affinity for their Portuguese heritage), individuals’ involvement in the community and outside it differs substantially. In Vancouver, participation in the community tends to be lower among those with high job status than among those in less prestigious jobs. An inverse trend was found for involvement in Canadian society. Professionals reconcile the two worlds into a continuum of multiple social and economic attachments, but for the overwhelming majority integration is only a myth. Though they may describe themselves as Portuguese Canadians, their involvement in the larger society is marginal.

In Vancouver, identification with Canadian society seems to increase over time within the first generation, but participation in Portuguese organizations and ethnic commitment do not decline. Length of residence seems to affect perceptions of ethnic identity, but interaction with the Portuguese community seems to remain unaltered.

A headline in a Canadian newspaper read: “Blending in: Portuguese integrate so well that assimilation is a problem.” Such gradual integration into a Canadian society into which Portuguese are introducing their own cultural values is producing what some community leaders consider a new, Portuguese-Canadian culture, blending elements of both cultures.

Observations suggest that cultural identification creates the most crucial conflict for younger Portuguese. Young people themselves identify four levels of assimilation: people who have never acculturated; those who have done so to the extent that they have lost the Portuguese language; those who spend their whole lives in cultural indecision; and those who become bicultural, adopting aspects of both cultures. For many youths, being Canadian and/or Portuguese remains an unresolved issue. One of them comments: “The easiest thing is to renounce our background completely. The hardest is to reject integration and adopt a ‘ghetto’ attitude which leads to isolationism. The answer probably lies between the two extremes; we should not completely abandon our upbringing nor should we try to live by the old values in a different environment.” For many young people being Portuguese Canadian is being able to reconcile two distinct cultures – a synthesis, not a contradiction.

The second generation is attaining maturity. Levels of education are rising, and assimilation is expected to increase. While ethnic identity is a source of enrichment for some, for others it can result in conflict, and some simply reject their ethnic identity and cultural heritage. It is not clear whether the second and third generations will follow the same path as their parents and grandparents and, if not, whether they will be able to preserve any of the older culture and traditions.

The survival and integrity of Portuguese neighbourhoods and communities in Canada in the long term may be problematic. The reasons are many: the decrease in immigration; dispersion of first-generation Portuguese to different parts of the city and to the suburbs; internal and external threats to the community, such as replacement by other ethnic groups; inner-city revitalization/ gentrification, which displaces ethnic communities; and redevelopment projects and rising housing prices. All these factors may contribute to the expected gradual integration and/or assimilation into Canadian society.

Further Reading

Readers can gain a general sense of Portuguese history in Douglas L. Wheeler, Historical Dictionary of Portugal (Metuchen, N.J., 1993), while Victor Pereira Da Rosa, Thomas C. Bruneau, and Alex Macleod, eds., Portugal in Development: Emigration, Industrialization, the European Community (Ottawa, 1984), is a useful collection of essays.

Portuguese Canadians form an important segment of Canada’s heterogeneous population, but the number of published studies dealing with this group is limited. The most comprehensive study tracing the Portuguese presence in Canada since the late fifteenth century as well as a wide variety of data on community and institutional life in the post-World War II era is by Grace Anderson and David Higgs, “A Future to Inherit”: The Portuguese Communities of Canada (Toronto, 1976), also in French as L’héritage du futur: les communautés portugaises au Canada (Montreal, 1979). More recent, with an emphasis on patterns of migration, is David Higgs, ed., Portuguese Migration in Global Perspective (Toronto, 1990). Among the earliest studies of Portuguese in Canada is the sociological analysis of the Toronto community by Grace Anderson, Networks of Contact: The Portuguese and Toronto (Waterloo, Ont., 1974).

To mark the first twenty-five years of Portuguese immigration to Canada, Domingos Marques and Joao Medeiros published (in Portuguese) Imigrantes Portugueses: 25 Anos no Canadá (Toronto, 1978), translated into English two years later as Portuguese Immigrants: 25 Years in Canada (Toronto, 1980). It contains an historical account of Portuguese immigration, extracts from interviews with early Portuguese immigrants, and descriptions of the development of some twenty Portuguese communities, including those in Toronto and Montreal. In 1993, Domingos Marques and Manuela Marujo published With Hardened Hands: A Pictorial History of Portuguese Immigration to Canada in the 1950s (Etobicoke, Ont., 1993), which includes a unique collection of 153 photographs. Victor Pereira Da Rosa, with Salvato Trigo, Contribuição ao Estudo da Emigração nos A çores (Angra do Heroísmo, Azores, 1990), deals with the causes and consequences of Azorean emigration and contains information on the Azorean emigration to North America and particularly to Canada.

Victor Pereira Da Rosa, in collaboration with João António Alpalhão, produced the first major study of the Portuguese in the province of Quebec: Les Portugais du Québec: éléments d’analyse socio-culturelle (Ottawa, 1979), also in English as A Minority in a Changing Society: The Portuguese Communities of Quebec (Ottawa, 1980) and in Portuguese as Da Emigração à Aculturação: Portugal Insular e Continental no Quebeque (Lisbon, 1983). Gilles Lavigne published, Les ethniques et la ville: l’aventure urbaine des immigrants portugais à Montréal (Montreal, 1987) is a study of the formation of the Portuguese neighbourhood of Saint-Louis in Montreal.

In the 1990s other important aspects of the Portuguese presence in Canada, such as language retention, intergenerational conflicts, and the suburbanization of Portuguese received attention through various doctoral studies at Canadian universities. Manuela Dias, in “Deux langues en contact: le français et le portugais dans les communautés de Paris et de Montréal” (Ph.D. thesis, University of Toronto, 1990), looked at the sociolinguistic situation of the Portuguese community in Montreal as well as in Paris, while sociologist Edite Noivo investigated Portuguese family intergenerational kin relations of Portuguese Canadians in Montreal. Her doctoral dissertation, “Family Life – Worlds and Social Injuries: Three Generations of Portuguese-Canadians” (Ph.D. thesis, Université de Montreal, 1992), is a study of the impact that individual and family experiences of one immigrant generation have on the next two. Carlos Teixeira, “The Role of ‘Ethnic’ Sources of Information in the Relocation Decision-Making Process: A Case Study of the Portuguese in Mississauga” (Ph.D. thesis, York University, 1992), examines Portuguese homebuyers’ search behaviour.

In 1992 Carlos Teixeira and Gilles Lavigne published The Portuguese in Canada: A Bibliography/Les Portugais au Canada: une bibliographie (Toronto, 1992) for those interested in research on Portuguese Canadians. As well as a brief overview of the immigration of the Portuguese to Canada and of their settling in major Canadian cities, this bilingual work presents a bibliography containing 760 titles. The bibliography has two sections: one composed of standard references, the other of articles published in the Portuguese-language press in Canada.

By its efforts throughout the years in collecting and preserving relevant material and documents dealing with the Portuguese presence in Canada, the Multicultural History Society of Ontario became one of the most important archival centres for studying the Portuguese group and its holdings are described in part in “Portuguese Collection,” in A Guide to the Collections of the Multicultural History Society of Ontario , Nick Forte, comp., Gabriele Scardellato, ed. (Toronto, 1992), 467–72. Other collections on the Portuguese in Canada, including books, monographs, theses, oral histories, journal and periodical articles, and Portuguese newspapers, can be found at the Université de Montréal; Centre d’Action Socio-communautaire de Montréal; the National Library of Canada (Ottawa); the Archives of Ontario (Toronto); the University of Toronto, and the Portuguese Interagency Network (Toronto).

CARLOS TEIXEIRA