The Portuguese community in Belgium

The arrival of the first Portuguese to Belgium back to the end of XII century. D. Teresa, daughter of D. Afonso Henriques, marries Philip of Alsace, Count of Flanders. With the marriage has called the Matilde and installed it first and then in Bruges FUMES. Some years later, his nephew D. Son of Fernando D. Sancho I, married the Princess Joan, daughter of Baudouin LX, Count of Flanders and Hainaut These two marriages brought to the Flanders many Portuguese settled there, primarily as traders.

Three centuries later, a new marriage brings real Belgian and Portuguese. The beautiful Elizabeth, daughter of D. John I, cosa with Philip the Good, Duke of the bargain, which, by its territorial conquests, managed to unite several states which later led to the Kingdom of Belgium. 0 romance between two lovers inspired the artists of the era, including the famous Van Eyck, who painted the portrait of the princess. 0 married in great pomp, was held in Bruges and led the Order of the Toison d'Or. " In the entourage of the Princess Elizabeth came to Portugal in 2000, which is integrated and came to occupy prominent positions in the social, cultural and economic city which had certain privileges.

With the loss of the economic importance of Bruges at the end of the fifteenth century, due to the silting of its port, the port business and moved to Antwerp. With this shift has also changed the Portuguese colony, who continued to enjoy the privileges that had in Bruges. The Portuguese are mainly stressed on trade and finance. Some, such as the Coso de Simão Rodrigues de Évora, people were influential in local society and great patrons, and artists of the time and helped Otto Venus and Rubens, the acquisition of several works. It is then, in 1499, it created a factory in Portugal in Antwerp, which, among others, performed consular functions. Can therefore say that the Consulate of Portugal in Antwerp has 500 years of existence.

After the emigration of royal blood, humans arrived, distinguishing itself Damião de Goes foreman who was in Antwerp and professor at Louvain, where he helped the local population to defend the city against the French troops. In the seventeenth century. XIX, Almeida Garrett was the first Portuguese Ambassador to the Kingdom of Belgium. Already in the seventeenth century. XX, Victorian Nemésio created the course in Portuguese at the University! Free Brussels. It should be noted that the soldiers came to help defend freedom in the first world war, with thousands left their lives in the famous battle of Lys. More recently, those who helped with their work and continue to help develop the Belgian economy.

In this century, the first great migration of the Portuguese people for Belgium mandate of the sixties. Some came for political reasons, others for economic reasons. Of these, most, coming from the mining regions of Portugal, came to work the mines of the regions of Liege, of Hainault and Limburg. Others have to practice your profession in the work of stone in Sprimont, Poulseur, Soignies and Yvoir. It should be stressed that these were already performing in his home land of the same activity.

0 seconds there is great flow from the accession of Portugal to the European Union in the eighties. It also noted some differences between the two flows.

In the sixties were the first men, now with the large contract of employment, and only later processing family reunification.

The second flow, in most cases, the family came together soon, or at least the spouse and, in larger cases, no contract of employment. This created a greater number of issues of economic and social nature, especially as the difficulties in finding work were greater.

The Portuguese community has some peculiarities. Today, I can speak of three generations. Some problems are different generation of pore generation. For example, the professional qualification. While the first generation has very little training, especially the second and third already show great progress. 0 with the same integration. Virtually nonexistent in relation to the first generation, there is a reasonable level in relation to the second and a substantial improvement with regard to the third generation. It is clear that education and good knowledge of local language had a dominant influence on the degree of integration.

Another feature is the entrepreneurial spirit. Taking into account the amount of global community, about 40 thousand people, is the significant number of those self-employed or are entrepreneurs. 0 same goes for those who get a higher level qualification. 0 their number is increasing every year. This means that parents are increasingly aware of the importance of training their children. One example of this integration is the high proportion of mixed marriages, about 75%.

Also deserve special mention: the liveliness of voluntary movement, one of the main drivers of community centers, despite the difficulties it has encountered, many of them involved the mutation of the migration. Should also mention the artistic creativity, because there are few Portuguese communities in the world with such a large proportion of artists of merit and recognized as important number of cultural initiatives.

In terms of the negative aspects pointed out the lack of civic participation Portuguese community in local political life. It is one of the main challenges for the future. In its own interest, the Portuguese must have greater participation in local life expression, especially the communal level. Another challenge is to improve the level of professional qualification. In a society increasingly demanding in terms of competitiveness, the most qualified to occupy the front seats, while the other will be for places of low socio-economic scale. Finally, there is a greater unity of the community around common goals and projects. This not only contribute to better defend their rights and interests, but also improve its image against the other communities.

After the accession of our country to the European Union, the Portuguese community had a considerable qualitative change, we change also has to operate in the field of attitudes.

The Portuguese, without falling into chauvinism Provincial should not forget the historical origins and their culture. They have yet to take more European citizenship in all its aspects, in a multicultural environment which is the enrichment factor and recovery personnel.

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