Preliminary Programme

The processes of decolonisation of Spanish territories in Africa (which began in Morocco in 1956, Equatorial Guinea in 1968 and Western Sahara in 1975) have been extensively studied in recent historiography. However, this has not been the case with regard to the repatriation of Spanish settlers in these territories, which has received secondary attention until now. This paper proposes a comparative look at the different processes of forced returns caused by the Spanish withdrawal from its African colonies, under the formulas of directed and massive evacuations, subsidised and programmed repatriations or more or less free and staggered returns, among others. Some of the questions addressed in this study are: how were these removals carried out, how were they financed, what were the consequences for the returnees, and what were the consequences for the returnees? The proposal has been constructed on the basis of existing documentation on decolonisation in the Africa Fund of the General Archive of the Spanish Administration (AGAE) and also on the basis of opinions expressed in the Spanish press and interviews with former settler returnees. (Show less)

Repatriation processes are part of Portuguese history. The most well-known and remembered by Portuguese society is, without a doubt, the repatriation of the Portuguese settlers during the decolonization process of Angola and Mozambique. Taking place in the aftermath of the Carnation Revolution of 25 April 1974, it marked the spirits not only by the context in which it happened, of a very high level of economic, political and social turmoil, known as the “Ongoing revolutionary process” (1974-1976), but also by its scale, as it is estimated that over half-a-million of Portuguese nationals arrived, or in the majority of cases, came back to Portugal in a short period of time. This paper aims to answer the following questions: i) What measures did the new Portuguese authorities implement in order to repatriate, accommodate and integrate the returnees within Portuguese society? ii) How was the repatriated population perceived by the former metropolis? iii) How do the returnees remember their exit from Africa and their installation in post-colonial Portugal? In order to answer these questions, this paper will be based on archival sources, parliamentary debates, the Portuguese press as well as oral history (Show less)

From the end of the First World War until the outbreak of the Second World War, various economic crises affected Latin American countries, the most prominent of which was undoubtedly the Great Depression. These crises led to a dramatic rise in unemployment and a reduction in the traditional flow of emigrants from Europe, as well as the consequent start of a wave of returnees, many of them subsidised by European governments in view of the precarious conditions in which the emigrants found themselves. Indeed, the loss of employment and savings were the main causes that led many Spaniards living in countries such as Cuba, Argentina, Brazil and Mexico to apply to consulates for a repatriation passage. What was the capacity of the Spanish state to repatriate the destitute? How were these subsidised returns managed? What economic and institutional actors were involved in these processes? What were the consequences of these repatriations in Spain? These are some of the questions addressed in this paper. (Show less)

The intention of the return, inherent in each migratory project, led the Portuguese State to determine mechanisms for guaranteeing the maintenance of ties between the country of origin and its Portuguese community. Nowadays, the Portuguese government continues to define policies encouraging the return so to attract the emigrants with a strong professional and financial capital and, consequently, with a better potential of achievement to stimulate the national economic development.
In face of the stimulation of a well-succeed and an achieved return, we need to question the place of the repatriation, which is generally related, in the national historiography, to the return of Portuguese from the colonies during the decolonization process (1974-1976). Nevertheless, this mechanism of State protection has not been only used in the context of life-threatening or loss of security. It has been also used as a tool for protecting emigrants from socioeconomic precarity.
The paper wants to question (i) how the emigration policy defined repatriation as a mechanism to guarantee the Portuguese emigrants' protection in the context of socioeconomic vulnerability; (ii) In which way the repatriation practice can evidence a gap between the repatriation principle directed by the moral duty and the discriminatory process followed by the local actors mainly represented by the Portuguese consulate services.
To answer these questions, I propose a reflection on the meaning of the repatriation in the Portuguese Emigration policies during the first years of the Portuguese Dictatorship (1926-1939). This approach will be confronted by a transnational analysis of the repatriation practice during the Great Depression from Brazil, in which I will focus on the consulate’s service activities. (Show less)