AEMI

MARIA BEATRIZ ROCHA-TRINDADE
pires, because quite a few repatriation
movements had already taken place in
Europe during the 20th century – the
British coming from India (1947) and
East Africa (1967); the Dutch who returned
from Indonesia (1949); Belgians
repatriated from former Belgian Congo
(1960), the now Republic of Congo;
Frenchmen repatriated from Algeria
(1962), from Tunisia (1956), West Africa
(1960) and Indochina (1949).
The sudden arrival of a voluminous
flow of ‘returnees’ to Portugal 11 (an
expression which referred to them in a
negative way) expressed by various estimates,
considered numbers that reached
between 500,000 and a million people.
The surprise of a so significant and sudden
influx of people and the position
that they assumed in society provoked
reactions, not always in favor of their
acceptance, creating in many of the residents
a sense of visible concern, which
often assumed a clear attitude of rejection.
The diversity of opinions generated
apprehension and unfair criticism, but
also major initiatives of solidarity. The
comprehensive designation Returnees
(Regressados) that was then assigned to
them developed a negative connotation,
which remained for a long time. Generalizations
were made and the people
ended up being placed in a category that
did not enable a distinction between
its elements and, in a way, extrapolated
personal characteristics, which consequently
led to a marginalization. For
many, this return forced felt like an exile.
Summarizing previous observations,
it can be said that both the petitioners
of the right to asylum and the refugees
constitute unique situations of human
43
mobility and that, although they could
be conceptually integrated in general
migration problems, they are differentiated
from them by the imminent risk
they are exposed to which requires the
adoption of specific solutions aimed exclusively
at these populations.
Foreseeing the Future from the
Current Situation
The year of 2008 delineated and confirmed
a financial crisis environment
throughout the world, translated initially
by the bankruptcy of housing
loans enterprises, the bankruptcy of financial
organizations dedicated to speculative
practices, possibly of a criminal
nature, followed by an economic crisis
due to devaluations in the stock market,
the bankruptcy of industrial and service
companies and the increase of explosive
lay-offs and the resulting unemployment
rates.
This crisis has not yet manifested a
visible stabilization, containment or
reduction, despite the very strong interventions
and considerable financial
amounts advanced by developed countries’
Governments, perhaps due to the
political stagnation of the world’s largest
economy, which lasted until the
re-election of the current President of
the United States of America. Barack
Obama’s last State of the Union speech
(in January, 2015) recently presented to
the wide audience of Republicans and
Democrats who heard him in Washington
reveals the great modification
that has been operating in the country
throughout his six years in Office. The
same did not happen in Europe, where
there is a visible inequality between the
Northern and Southern countries. Stag-