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(P060)

Cape Verdean diaspora: dialogues and contemporary relationships

Location C5.05
Date and Start Time 27 June, 2013 at 11:30

Convenors

Iolanda Évora (Instituto de Economia e Gestao, ISEG, Univ Tecn Lisboa ) email
Andréa Lobo (Brasília University) email
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Short Abstract

We propose a discussion on the multiple dimensions of Cape Verdean society of diaspora and aspects of social life within the diasporic space- culture, identity, social relations, new migration, gender relations, economic and power relations and the social capital generated in the field of migration.

Long Abstract

The Cape Verdean communities abroad show up increasingly rooted in their societies of destination and, simultaneously, intensify the pathways and networks that approach the emigrants between them and with the archipelago. Nowadays, the population seeks to explore systematically the economic and identity advantages of networks to develop their activities at a supranational scale. Meanwhile, Cape Verde no longer presents itself as just the past of the diaspora but, much more, seeking to explain and update itself as part of a society of diaspora.

This panel proposes a discussion on the multiple dimensions of Cape Verdean society of diaspora and the diasporic space as the place of creation of the major products, signs and symbols that describe the Cape Verdean society within and outside the archipelago. We invite researchers to revisit: the national, non-national and transnational nexus; the current social practices of the diaspora and its influence on the powerful narratives about the fate of the Cape Verdean nation; the processes of mobility of people, goods and ideas within diasporic space; the political projects of migrants' participation; and the participation of migrants and non-migrants in the social, cultural, political and economic life of the archipelago and of the communities abroad, respectively. We expect that these works reaches the groups affected by the Cape Verdean migration on different aspects of social life - culture, identity, social relations, new migration, gender relations, economic and power relations and the multiple dynamics of competition for important (social) capital generated in the field of migration.

Discussant: Juliana Braz Dias (Universidade de Brasília)

This panel is closed to new paper proposals.

Papers

Gender practices in Cape Verdean communities in Spain: the plasticity and dynamism of gender as a structuring element of migrations

Author: Luzia Oca (UTAD)  email
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Short Abstract

This paper makes a comparison between two of the historic Cape Verdean communities settled in Spain, in León and Galiza, with the aim to demonstrate the plasticity and dynamism of gender as a social construction, which can be negotiated and reconstructed in migratory contexts.

Long Abstract

Cape Verdean fluxes in Spain, settled from 1978, present specific organization guidelines, which structured around gender and island origin, leading to communities based on feminine or masculine work, and with major origin on Santiago or on the other islands.

We propose to make a comparison between the communities settled in Galicia and Leon, representing the flows of the two differentiated lines by origin in the archipelago, which will serve as an example of the fluidity and dynamism of gender relations and roles its three decades of existence. Both communities have different evolutions which show how, in a context of multifactoriality, the labor sphere appears as determinant in their evolution.

The comparison will serve as an example of the fluidity of gender as a structuring element in migratory processes. Starting from radically different realities (Leon´s women as autonomous workers; Galiza´s women as dependent wives), legal status, social and economic roles of Cape Verdean women changed with the passage of time, demonstrating the plasticity and dynamism of gender as a social construction, that can be negotiated and reconstructed in migratory contexts (Gregorio, 1998; Donato, 2006; Mahler e Pessar, 2006).

If, on the one hand, many of the migrants from Madrid abandoned their initial migratory laboral project in Madrid to join a man in León, staying as housewives, in the Galician case, women, arrived as wives, were able to change their subalternity status thanks to male absence, winning not only labor spaces, but also of representation and organization of the community.

La diáspora caboverdeana en la Argentina: las nuevas generaciones y su participación en la lucha por la visibilización y el reconocimiento de la población de afrodescendientes y africanos

Author: Marta Mercedes Maffia (Universidad Nacional de La Plata)  email
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Short Abstract

El objetivo de esta presentación será analizar la participación de las nuevas generaciones de descendientes de inmigrantes caboverdeanos en la conformación o construcción de un incipiente movimiento social afro en la Argentina.

Long Abstract

En trabajos anteriores he tratado las dimensiones diaspóricas de la migración Caboverdeana hacia y en Argentina ocurrida en la primera mitad del siglo XX. El objetivo de esta presentación será analizar la participación de las nuevas generaciones de descendientes de inmigrantes caboverdeanos en la conformación o construcción de un incipiente movimiento social afro en la Argentina, junto a otros afroargentinos, afrodescendientes provenientes de distintos países de latinoamérica y a los nuevos inmigrantes africanos subsaharianos , senegaleses, nigerianos, sierraleoneses, ghanianos, cameruneses, entre otros, que desde la década de los noventa están arribando a la Argentina.

En la primera parte del trabajo nos detendremos brevemente en la noción de diáspora en general y diáspora caboverdeana en particular. En segundo término, analizaremos las dimensiones diaspóricas de migración de los caboverdeanos en la Argentina, refieriéndonos a las cuestiones de las relaciones con Cabo Verde y el regreso. La segunda parte, estará destinada a analizar las acciones de algunos miembros de las nuevas generaciones , la construcción de liderazgos y su participación en la que podríamos señalar, como una primera etapa de un movimiento social afro en la Argentina, cuya motivación central es luchar contra la invisibilización, la discriminación, el racismo, al que esta población se ha visto sometida históricamente y a favor de la inclusión y el reconocimiento pleno de sus derechos como ciudadanos.

Mobilities in the family and society: an ethnographic approach between Santo Antão, Belgium and Luxembourg

Author: Elisabeth Defreyne (Université Catholique de Louvain)  email
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Short Abstract

Using both kinship and mobility anthropologies, my study asks what keeps together a physically scattered family or society by observing the main role played by flows in it. I use a data of a long term ethnography based on the Santo Antão island and the diasporas of Belgium and Luxembourg.

Long Abstract

In what has been called the Cape Verdean « transnational archipelago » [Bathala L. And Carling J, 2008], people and goods keep moving. And they don't seem to be done doing it. What is striking when observing the large variety of « movements » (as sending a drum, distributing candies or even telling a story about leaving in migration) is the wide networks of people they are refered to. These networks involve many places and people, physically moving or not, though related by what one could call a shared imaginary about mobilities. This imaginary is daily noticeable and tells us in fine what « being a family » or « being a society » really means to these people. Refering to my ethnographic experience among the family networks spread (in part) between Santo Antão, Belgium and Luxembourg, I'll intend to show how is transmitted what could be called an « ability to circulate ».

The "encomendas": the flow of things in Cape Verde transnational family relations

Author: Andréa Lobo (Brasília University)  email
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Short Abstract

The paper focuses on the flow of things through transnational networks between Cape Verdean migrants and their relatives at home.The flows in question consolidate social, cultural, and family networks between migrants and their home communities in a complex system of exchange and circulation of gifts.

Long Abstract

The presentation is about the ways people strengthen and maintain their sense of belonging to concrete or imagined places or groups via communication networks. It focuses on the flow of things through transnational networks between Cape Verdean migrants and their relatives at home. It is an intense and diversified network involving kinship ties in a context of prolonged physical distance in both space and time. The flows in question consolidate social, cultural, and family networks between migrants and their home communities in a complex system of exchange and circulation of gifts, requests, money, and information that mobilize those who leave and those who stay. The argument is based on the dialogue between ethnographic data and works that have explored transnational flows of people, capital, and goods within the globalization framework.

Cape Verde: migratory dynamics between the 60's of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st century

Author: Clementina Furtado (Universidade de Cabo Verde)  email
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Short Abstract

The study will focus on these movements' statistics and socio-demographic impacts on the country. Statistics data will be collected and after being treated, they will be properly analysed for later qualitative evaluation of the evolution effects.

Long Abstract

The present work is going to focus on the analysis of the migratory path of the country during the 60's and beginning of the XXI century, highlighting the shift of this migration in the context of international migrations. It emphasizes the importance of female emigration in Cape Verde and the mass immigration from ECOWAS, mainly from the 90's. At the same time, it will discuss the impacts for the country. The main problem that justifies this study is the increase on female emigration and the switch from the emigration stage for the coexistence emigration/immigration, with the entrance of ECOWAS citizens. This has motivated a significant change on the national migratory profile, with diverse national, ethnic and religious origins. In absolute terms, from 5 people in 1990, it changed to 3.778 in 2010 (DEF, 2010). The total number of foreign people living legally in Cape Verde until 1990 was 174. This number increased to 7.453 people (3.778 from ECOWAS countries). These represent 50.6% of the immigrant population living in the county in 2010. The number of illegal immigrants is also worrying. It is estimated around 15 to 20 thousand illegal immigrants (Teixeira, 2010). Yet 2010 Census presents approximately as twice as the legal immigrants (14.373 from which, 8.78 from ECOWAS, representing about 61.1%). Guineans represent the majority (5.544) effectives in relation to INE (National Institute of Statistics) data and 1.530 in the case of DEF data.

Key words: emigration; immigration (from ECOWAS); migratory dynamics; female migrations; socio-demographic impacts.

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Capeverdean culture in diaspora

Author: Maria Ramos (Technica University of Lisboa)  email
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Short Abstract

The purpose of this communication is to analyze the dissemination of capeverdean cultural events in the diaspora in order to understand not only the type of emphasis given by the press online, but also the nature of such events.

Long Abstract

Migrant groups tend to maintain a certain cultural activity that provides them a symbolic return to the origins, social cohesion and a group dynamic that accentuate their identity. It begins with small events and gradually the most important artists are called to perform for great audiences of immigrants. Simultaneously, some other artists emerge in diaspora and capture the attention.

In the case of Cap Verde, music is of its most important cultural product, so the concerts are very common in different places and countries, even where the local capeverdean community is small. Besides that, it should be emphasized that some artist like deceased Cesária Évora, Tito Paris, Mayra Andrade, among others, became internationally famous due to their career abroad.

Concerts, exhibitions, festivals, and so on, can reveal the community's organization capacity but it is also a way of promoting their culture and their social integration. This enables the dialogue between people who has different cultural patterns, habits and perspectives but share artistic interests. In sum, cultural events seem to be an important instrument for understanding multiculturalism created by migration movements.

The purpose of this communication is to analyze the dissemination of capeverdean cultural events in the diaspora in order to understand not only the type of emphasis given by the press online, but also the nature of such events.

Redrawing the Cape Verdean diaspora: the case of Cape Verdean emigrant Nazarenes along the Atlantic space

Author: Max Ruben Ramos (Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa)  email
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Short Abstract

The objective of this paper is to revisit the notion of diaspora and redraw the Cape Verdean diaspora in the light of one of the components of Cape Verdean diaspora largely ignored in studies of Cape Verdean emigration: the religious dimension of the Cape Verdean diaspora.

Long Abstract

The relevance of the Cape Verdean diaspora in shaping and building the Cape Verdean nation-state is unquestionable. In fact, the Cape Verdean diaspora has influenced profoundly the modus operandi of the people of this archipelago, and one of the components that reverberates this influence clearly is the religious dimension of Cape Verdean emigrants. We can demonstrate this fact with the case of Nazarene Protestantism which arrived to the islands in 1901, by hands of João José Dias, a Cape Verdean migrant, who resided in the U.S in the last decade of 19th century. During the 20th Century the Church of the Nazarene (CN), which emerge in U.S, was spread to all islands and became the best known Protestant church in Cape Verde. Many pastors of this traditional Protestant church were sent off as missionaries, became leaders of the CN or exercised their pastorate in Portugal, Senegal, Brazil, Sao Tome and Principe, France, Holland, Norway, U.S, Argentina, Angola, Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe. What kind of notion of Cape Verdean diaspora these mobilities build among Cape Verdean emigrants Nazarenes, along the Atlantic space? How these transnational missions influence the Nazarenes in the archipelago, nowadays? What kind of connections the Nazarenes in Cape Verde have with the Cape Verdean Nazarenes abroad? For answer these question, I will resort to the dynamic and mobility of Cape-Verdean Protestant pastors, missionaries and believers of the Church of the Nazarene, to Senegal, Brazil, Portugal and U.S during the twentieth-century up to this day.

O "contratado" para S. Tomé e Príncipe: representações em discursos de intelectuais e politicos cabo-verdianos (1910 - 1974)

Author: Ângela Coutinho  email
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Short Abstract

Nesta comunicação, pretende-se analisar a forma como foi representado o “contratado” cabo-verdiano para S. Tomé e Príncipe por intelectuais e políticos seus conterrâneos, desde o período da Iª República, de 1910 a 1926, até à independência nacional, proclamada em 1975.

Long Abstract

Como consequência da decadência da sociedade escravocrata em Cabo Verde e do forte investimento nas plantações de cacau em S. Tomé e Príncipe, foi no século XIX que teve início a emigração de cabo-verdianos para este arquipélago. Tendo perdurado ao longo da primeira metade do século XX, esta foi considerada pelo historiador António Carreira como uma "emigração forçada".

Nesta comunicação, pretende-se analisar a forma como foi representado o "contratado" cabo-verdiano para S. Tomé e Príncipe por intelectuais e políticos seus conterrâneos, desde o período da Iª República, até à independência nacional, proclamada em 1975.

Procurar-se-á comparar a imagem construída desta experiência migratória em artigos surgidos na imprensa cabo-verdiana durante o periodo da Iª República (1910 - 1926), em textos literários publicados durante a vigência do regime do Estado Novo (1933 - 1974) e em discursos pronunciados pelo líder do P.A.I.G.C. (Partido Africano pela Independência da Guiné-Bissau e de Cabo Verde), Amílcar Cabral, ao longo da luta de libertação nacional (1960 - 1974), buscando eventuais pontos em comum, indagando acerca dos públicos que se procurava atingir e dos objetivos que se pretendiam alcançar através destas representações.

Cape Verdean diaspora, new mobilities, new actor: the case of deportees

Author: Katia Cardoso (Faculdade de Economia da Universidade de Coimbra )  email
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Short Abstract

In this paper I argue that the deportees, as “new” actors of Cape Verdean diaspora, break the image of the “wealthy emigrant”, mainly because they are associated with criminality and youth violence.

Long Abstract

Emigration is an important part of the Cape Verdean social "DNA" and it has always been one of the main springboards for social mobility for the Cape Verdeans. The Cape Verdean diaspora is associated with images and narratives of success, both in the host countries, where Cape Verdeans are mostly known as hardworking, and in Cape Verde, where emigrants (in vacation or returnees) show signs of economic prosperity. However, in recent years, a growing number of Cape Verdean deportees from European countries and the United States brought new inputs to this narrative of success. In this paper I argue that the deportees, as "new" actors of Cape Verdean diaspora, break the image of the "wealthy emigrant", mainly because they are associated with criminality and youth violence.

Migration and recomposition of gender relations in Cape Verde

Author: Cláudio Furtado (Federal University of Bahia)  email
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Short Abstract

We intend to analyze the impact of migration on the reconfiguration of gender relations in Cape Verde, focusing on the experiences of rural families. The centrality of women in decision making, in the absence of their husbands, endows them with an important manageability and empowerment

Long Abstract

This paper intend to explore how the live experienced by capeverdean women in the management of the household, when their husbands are migrated, and if it can, on the one hand, making them central to the process of decision-making, particularly in management of economic and financial resources, and the other hand, as this may become an important factor of tension in relations of co-presence.

Many studies have been produced addressing the impacts of migration on the family's structures in Cape Verde and in the diaspora, like Lobo (2012), Dias (2000), Akesson (2004).

Indeed, a study I conducted in rural areas (Furtado, 1993) showed signs in rebuilding family, particularly in the management of the household by women, whose husbands were migrated. In fact, women played an increasing importance in the management of economic and financial resources. Indeed, remittances sent by their husbands, were managed by women, who decided not only the destination of these resources but also took responsibility for the management of economic enterprises, whether in agriculture, in commerce or in construction.

However, the return of their husbands calls into question the division of responsibilities. In some cases, I noticed conflicts, because women refused to play a mere adjuncts role of their husbands, while they sought to take its traditional and role. In any case, whatever the level of conflict, and what we see is what we seek to understand the process by which adjustments are possible, reconfiguring gender relations, giving women a greater role in managing the family

Mulheres do meio rural em Cabo Verde: articulando novas estratégias de mobilização para a Europa

Author: Carmelita Silva (UNICV)  email
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Short Abstract

o trabalho centralizará escencialmente no batucu como uma estratégia de mobilidade usada pelas mulheres caboverdianas do meio rural, que vem no seu projecto migratório para a Europa a possibilidade terminarem uma relação virtual com o seu companheiro/marido emigrante.

Long Abstract

Propomos a partir desta comunicação, reflectir sobre emigração feminina para Europa. Procuraremos essencialmente, focalizar a nossa discussão para o Batuku enquanto estratégia de mobilização, usada por grupos de mulheres batucadeiras residentes no meio rural, que pretendem a partir desta prática cultural aceder a outros espaços de sociabilidade, que lhes conferem outros padrões de relacionamento afectivo e melhores condições de vida.

Embora seja verdade que a maioria das mulheres batucadeiras que participam em digressão pela Europa, almejam particularmente divulgar a sua cultura, não é menos verdade que um número significativo, especialmente de mulheres casadas ou unidas de facto, cujo marido ou companheiro se encontra emigrado, vêm nesta actividade a possibilidade de terminarem uma relação conjugal "virtual". Entretanto associada a essa nova estratégia de mobilização feminina, emerge um conjunto de outros problemas sociais, de entre os quais destacamos neste trabalho, a socialização dos filhos que ficam.

Neste sentido, recorrendo à análise da trajectória de vida de algumas batucadeiras do interior da ilha de Santiago, procuraremos mostrar como é que essa questão do "reencontro" do cônjuge e da socialização dos filhos que ficam no país de origem se constroem no imaginário social dessas mulheres que pretendem emigrar.

From and to the Cape Verde islands: transnational mobilities of people in the ECOWAS region

Author: Carlos Barbosa  email
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Short Abstract

On this presentation I will bring up some points on ECOWAS migration and transnational processes (re)reading the social complexity of Cape Verdean historical approach in their multiple dimensions and the current dynamics that have favored the mobility of people from and to the Cape Verde islands.

Long Abstract

The archipelago of Cape Verde, from its settlement to the present day, always has stood out as an area of migration. We can understand this dimension in a context of mobility of people in the geographical space. These mobilities also qualify in multiple dimensions (social, political, economic, cultural...) and two-way (departure / arrival). That is, talking about migrations we found a good example for a (re) reading of social complexity Cape Verdean historical approach in their multiple dimensions (demographic, political, economic, social and cultural) and the current dynamic that has favored the mobility of people from and to the islands of Cape Verde.

I try to present here some points on ECOWAS migration dynamics and processes that involve the archipelago of Cape Verde. The idea is to create lines of reflection on possible transnational relationships that have generated new challenges on the social and political level to a small island state. The example I swallow here, also, reverses the conception that international migration occur in a south / north or from the peripheries to the center of the capitalist system. And, it is interesting to understand here a scenario of intra-regional and cross-border migration that contradicts the generalized idea of transit and the hot topic debate and research of African migrations directed towards the global North.

Cape Verde: the bureaucratic state machine of modernity (1614-1990)

Author: Odair Varela (Institute of Law and Social Sciences)  email
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Short Abstract

This paper seeks to illustrate how the small archipelago of Cape Verde will be transformed into a bureaucratic machine in the service of colonial modernity, especially during the Iberian hegemony of modernity, especially from 1614.

Long Abstract

This paper seeks to illustrate how the small archipelago of Cape Verde will be transformed into a «bureaucratic machine» in the service of colonial modernity, especially during the Iberian hegemony of modernity. From 1614 the then-called «Cape Verde» is now formally a territorial discontinued space, including islands and continental African clods, which will be turning increasingly a subordinate cosmopolitan space. The emphasis on «official» and «formal» character change in costumes of the islands has the justification that the practice of institutionalization status has started much earlier given that the roots of this feature subaltern cosmopolitan African archipelago dates back to the beginning of the occupation Portuguese in 1460, and thereafter begins to institutionalize a «modern» colonization machine that will be exported to the «Americas». After independence, the state ends, as well as ruptures and transformations, some continuities of that «bureaucratic machine».

From "migrants" to "Cape Verdeans of diaspora": elements of a social psychological analysis of contemporary Cape Verdean mobility

Author: Iolanda Évora (Instituto de Economia e Gestao, ISEG, Univ Tecn Lisboa )  email
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Short Abstract

The names 'migrant' and 'Cape Verdean of diaspora' are examined as important indicators of current frameworks of representation and action in the social world of Cape Verdean migration, management of otherness and identities and modes of social hierarchy among actors and politicians

Long Abstract

The categories of classification mobilized by social and political actors to define and capture others, form a particularly important subject of study in the field of migration in that the categorization provides frameworks for representation and action on the social world. In this paper, we explore the denominations assigned to the subjects of mobility and its link with collective identities attributed to them historically. We examine the application forms of the denominatios "migrant" and "Cape Verdean of diaspora" to the subjects of Cape Verdean mobility, taking them as important indicators of the framework of this population on the social labels corresponding to the social roles and positions established within and outside of Cape Verde. We emphasize the cognitive and practical dimensions in which individuals are thought and perceived. The diversity of situations in which the denominations are used reflects the central role of categorization in identity construction at different levels: that of inter-individual relationship (social contacts), the collective representations and the relationship between the administrative and scientific institutions, as reported by Martiniello and Simon (2008)

This panel is closed to new paper proposals.