Resumo

DELAUNAY, Morgane. Portugal and the return of its settlers from Angola and Mozambique: governmental response and memory. CIDADES [online]. 2022, vol.44, pp.87-103.  Epub 15-Jun-2022. ISSN 2182-3030.  https://doi.org/10.15847/cct.25441.

In the aftermath of the Revolution, Portugal faced an unprecedented migratory movement: half a million of settlers arrived at the former metropolis in the course of 1975. If the event per se is not isolated, being inscribed in the decolonization repatriations conducted by the imperial powers after the end of World War II, the repatriation of the Portuguese settlers has, however, unique features. One of them being the internal context known by Portugal in which it happened, not only characterized by a high level of political and social turmoil, but also by economic instability. In this context, the massive arrival of the “retornados” represented an additional challenge for the authorities. By being the largest return phenomenon known until now by Portugal, analyzing the governmental response, juxtaposed with the experience and memory of the returnees themselves, allows us not only to contextualize the actual policies developed by the authorities for the Portuguese emigrants, but also to explore eventual parallelism. Based on the archives emanating from the State organizations created to implement the policies destined to the “retornados”, on the Parliamentary debates, the press, and also on oral History, this paper operates a cross-checking of sources that allows us to ponder two dominant discourses: the official one, that tends to present the returnees’ integration process as a smooth and exemplary success, which denotes a clear lusotropicalist influence; and a victimization discourse developed by a part of the returnees that insists on the idea of abandonment from the authorities.

Palavras-chave : returnees; end of Portuguese Empire; return; integration policies; memory.

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