Portugal and Human Trafficking (1822–2018)

Abstract

Despite its relatively small territory and the stability of its borders since the thirteenth century, the Portuguese State has never been able to fully appropriate the “monopoly of the legitimate means of movement” and did not possess the infrastructural power (in Michael Mann’s formulation) – compliant agents and efficient instruments – to control the mobility of the population. As a consequence, many Portuguese emigrated illegally. Among the four million Portuguese who left their country between 1822 and 1974, many of them did it illegally, without any passport, with a fake passport or by lying about their age or employment. The aim of this entry is to analyze both discourse and practices related to human trafficking in Portugal in the modern era, from 1822 and the independence of Brazil up to today. We will first see why the Portuguese elite presented, since the 1830s, emigration to Brazil as a white slave traffic. Then we will analyze the different ambiguities of the clandestine emigration during the dictatorship of the New State (1933–1974). Finally, in epilogue, we will see the mutations of irregular migrations in a country transformed by democratization and Europeanization.