Portugal forum < If you are Black, born in Portugal=no graduated Jobs

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    posted by Deleted user in Portugal forum 

    Hi Belinda,
    Well I took some time reading all these posts.

    Besides Portugal i have lived in Italy and Netherlands. As i see the question each country has its own racism level. I don't know how it can be measured but as soon as the country feels threatened by the inflow of foreigners ( as soon as the incomers are starting to bring more cos than pros) then it is likely that a kind of unpleasant formal (i,e national laws) and informal behaviour (i.e, people perceiving that foreigners are worsening "their own" country) start to influence the country attitudes towards forms of discrimination.
    Every country has its own level of discrimination that will vary according to several factors: welfare and social indicators of a country, social openness of its people, experiences in life etc etc...

    Now applying this frame of view to Portugal, what we have is the following:

    a)You say you cannot find a job even though you are high qualified. You should also have in consideration that Portugal is not the best country for a high qualified job: We are one of the last countries among EU15 in terms of economical and social development. We also have one of the highest unemployment rate of qualified people in the EU.

    b)When you mention that the jobs offered to colour people are more to African Countries that is partially because colour people normally have double nationality and thus it is easier for them to get working visas for African countries.
    To answer the question of why dark skin people are often not seen in "good job positions", you first have to present evidence: b1) the amount of dark skin people in qualified positions vs non-dark skin portion; b2) the amount of qualified dark skin people in unemployment vs non-dark skin portion
    If one judges from its own experience then we may not be seeing the overall picture. Often the general reality is differently from what one perceives...(if what matters more is reality or what one perceives, is then a different thing)
    One of the consequences of living in a country with poor economical and social development indicators is that even if you have the free education for everyone,you cant still eliminate the social differences: If you come from a disadvantageous family/position, you will never get too much (in terms of education or whatever) as if you did while not having other problems to deal with in life.

    c)You also cannot make one out of many. Just as you have people who do not socialize, because they think they belong to other social category or whatever reason,you also have people who are open and communicative and friendly. Besides that, one has to understand why people behave in a unfriendly way: what makes you friendly or not, largely depends on what you have experience and what you re now experiencing in life.

    Finally as racism is everywhere , the best thing one has to do is to understand why people end up developing forms of racism and unpleasant behaviour towards others.
    If you re really, as you said you were, an international student that lived in other countries and experienced many things that the average Portuguese citizen could never experience, then you should also be wise enough to step back and see the general picture.

    well...but I also understand your frustration.

    Good luck,
    David

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