Dulce Maria Scott
Anderson University & Institute for
Portuguese and Lusophone World Studies at
RIC
Introduction

I feel I owe it to my grandfather to keep his legacy alive. He left the
Azores not because he wanted to abandon his culture and way of
life. He left because he wanted to provide a better economic future
for his family…
I am in the process of getting my Portuguese passport. Even
though my grandfather had to renounce his Portuguese
citizenship, he is now going to have a grandson who will go back
and regain his citizenship…
Yet, I also think my grandfather made the right choice and I am
very proud of being an American…
(Excerpts from an interview, reflecting a double identity, with a third
generation Portuguese American in California in the summer of 2010)
Introduction

 Not all Luso-descendants identify as strongly with
their ancestral roots as does the descendant of early
20th century immigrants, whom I interviewed in
California in the summer of 2010.
 Yet, overall there seems to be a high level of interest
among Luso-descendants in their ancestral country,
a fact of import in the preservation of close ties
between the diaspora communities in North America
and their ancestral society.
Introduction

 Given that not all Luso-descendants remain interested in their
ethnicity or ancestral origins, I hypothesize that those who do,
after controlling for generation in North America, are more
likely to:
1.
2.
3.
4.
have a higher level of connections with Luso-American
communities;
label themselves as being Portuguese or Portuguese American
rather than as American;
have higher skills in and use of the Portuguese language; and
have achieved high levels of integration into American
society, while concurrently engaging in selective acculturation
or, if already assimilated, experiencing a renewed interest in
their roots and adopting a “symbolic ethnicity.”
Immigration timeline from Portugal to the United States
120000
100000
80000
60000
40000
20000
0

Data sources

 The data utilized in this paper are derived from
 Personal interviews in California, Massachusetts and
Rhode Island.
 An online survey of descendants of Portuguese
immigrants in the United States,
 The online survey included 330 respondents from
Canada (see Table 1) but in this presentation I utilize
only the data from the 1201 respondents from the
United States
Respondents by generation and country of
residence while growing up
Canada
United States
Total
One and a
half
160
48.5%
333
27.7%
493
32.2%
Second
Third
Fourth
Total
146
44.2%
562
46.8%
708
46.2%
23
7.0%
189
15.7%
212
13.8%
1
0.3%
117
9.7%
118
7.7%
330
100.0%
1201
100.0%
1531
100.0%
Note: The online survey was not based on a probability sample (a type of
sample nearly impossible to draw) of the entire population of Lusodescendants in North America. As such the research findings are
applicable only to those who have participated in the study.
Theory: segmented assimilation

 Processes of integration versus identity formation
and the retention of ties to the country of origin are
tied in segmented assimilation theory to:
 the context of reception (negative, neutral or positive)
immigrants and their descendants encounter in the
host country and
 the type of acculturation (consonant or dissonant, and
selective) upon which they embark.
Theory: “symbolic ethnicity”
 The traumatic integration experienced by the first and second generations
in America, at the turn of the 20th century, often took place within a context
of negative reception, where the immigrants and their American born
children, endured the hardships of discrimination, stereotypes, prejudice,
and devaluation of the culture of origin by members of the dominant
group. Under pressure to Americanize, the children of the immigrants
often negated, abandoned, in other words, died to, the maternal culture
and language, being then reborn as “true Americans,” indistinct from other
“real Americans.”
 Observing high levels of interest in their ethnicity by third and fourth
generation Americans, scholars revived Hansen’s “principle of the third
generation interest,” which asserts that “what the son wants to forget, the
grandson wants to remember” (Hansen, 1938: 9).
 Yet the grandchildren of those immigrants, according to Hansen’s
principle, already integrated and accepted on an equal footing with other
Americans and at a time when “being ethnic” did not inflict economic or
psychological costs on them, could afford to adopt an ethnic identity.
Country of origin and the
grounding of ethnic identity

 Gans (1979: 10) in his elaboration of the concept of
“symbolic ethnicity” suggested that the symbols of
ethnicity had to be grounded on something real. As
such he hinted that, perforce, as integration and
spatial mobility diluted the immigrant communities,
the relative importance of the country of origin for
the anchoring of the ethnic identity would increase.
Third and fourth generation testimonies on the
importance of visits to the ancestral land

 The return to third and fourth generation Portuguese
Americans, whom I interviewed, to their ethnic roots
was often punctuated with a visit to the ancestral
land.
 As explained by a third generation septuagenarian who resides
in California:
 We visited the Azores the first time in 1981, and we were
absolutely amazed with the beauty and the traditions…
Since then, we have returned to the Azores, Madeira and
continental Portugal many times…
 Going to the Azores was the real catalyst for my return to
my ethnicity. It was an amazing turn in our lives. I began
to develop my language skills capacity and started to take
classes in the 1980´s at the community college. After I
retired, I decided to do something for and with the
Portuguese community of San Jose in California…
 As related by a 60 year old granddaughter of Portuguese
immigrants:
 I went for the first time in 2001 with my godmother, my mother’s
youngest sister. No one from our family had ever been to the Azores.
We found an old letter that belonged to my grandmother, which had
an address on it, and I decided to write in English to see if anything
would come out of it…
 When we went there, it was as if a piece of the puzzle of my life had
finally been put in its place. Oh my Gosh! I was at the Archives,
searching for documents and I would bother the people there, asking
what does this or that say… because I could not read everything in
Portuguese… I found all of my four grandparents’ streets; I went into
the Churches and saw the fountains where they had been baptized…
In some ways it was a very spiritual experience for me… and I found
myself saying: “Oh! It is here that I belong!”…
 Now, I finally had a complete vision of what life might have been like
there for my grandparents and my great grandparents. During all of
my childhood, that piece of my history, of how and what the Azores
were, was a mystery to me because they would not speak about that
topic… They would say: “why do you want to know about that now?
That belongs in the past. Now we are Americans!”
As related by in Rhode Island by a Luso-descendant of the third
generation on the maternal side and of the fourth generation on the
paternal side:
 The turning point for me was when my third son came home from school
and casually said to me: “Mom, there’s three Portuguese kids in my
class.” I told him: “No, Ben, there are four Portuguese students in your
class.” He insisted: “Mom, there’s only three,” and he started to
enumerate them. It was then that I revealed to him: “Ben, there are four
because you are also Portuguese.” He was stunned and it was then that I
realized that neither my children nor I knew anything about our ancestral
roots.
 I felt so sad because I started thinking about my grandmother and how she
would love my children so tenderly… but they could have lived an entire
lifetime without knowing anything about her, the culture, the language
and the country that was hers. I became a woman on a mission. During
the following twelve years, I did everything possible to inform and educate
myself about my cultural heritage, and, in that manner, to be able to
transmit it to my children.
 We ended up all visiting São Miguel, me, my cousin, our sons and a
friend of theirs, altogether eight boys, all between fifteen and twenty years
of age. They loved the Island!…
And as explained by a third generation Luso-descendant,
biologically half Portuguese, psychologically one hundred percent
Portuguese
 It is very strange, but I feel that I am home when I am there. I went to
Terceira for seven weeks, the most glorious seven weeks of my life…
After the first week in Terceira, I felt I belonged there. I became a part
of them. That’s what I loved the most. They accepted me as one of
them.
 On a later visit I went to São Jorge and I was able to see the house
where my grandfather was born, to touch the house and the walls
where he was raised. It is still there. Someone else owns it now…
 If I can I want to go back. It is kind of a dream, but I would love to
buy back my grandfather’s house. Although I do not go back very
often, this is something important to me: to buy back what was my
grandfather’s, my great grandfather’s... going back I don’t know how
many generations in my family line. I would love to own that piece of
property, to say that I have it. It’s mine. It is my grandfather’s home
and I can pass it on to my daughter.
The second generation

 All young Luso-descendants whom I interviewed indicated that
they loved and felt pride in being Portuguese and that, for
them, there was no conflict in being simultaneously Portuguese
and American.
 As such, the visits to Portugal by young Luso-descendants
assume a critical and decisive importance (we may say: a truly
crucial importance!...) in the maintenance of the ancestral
culture, the preservation of the Portuguese language, and the
promotion of a persistent identification with Portugal, in one
statement, of the construction of an insider’s understanding of
what “being Portuguese” means.
 A young woman from the second generation who resides in
California told me: When the airplane took off from the island of
Faial, taking me back to America, for the first time in my life, I
understood, in depth, what the word “saudade” meant.
The second generation

 As suggested by three young women, two from the
second generation and one from the fourth generation,
who, together, attended a summer program at the
University of the Azores:
 We loved the Azores and the way of life there. People there have
much more freedom than we do here… In America, we do
everything on the run: it is from home to work and from work to
the university. We do not even have time to seat at the table and
eat together with family and friends… We love family life there…
 But going to the Azores is so expensive for us! ... SATA should
provide discounted airfares for students, and that way we could go
there more often.
The one and a half generation

 For some of the one and a half generation, the visits to
their natal land represent an opportunity to relive never
forgotten memories. As related by a Luso-descendant
who immigrated to the Unites States when she was
twelve years old:
 When the plane lifted off from the island of Terceira, tears were
streaming down my face. How could my parents take me away
from such a beautiful place, from a place where I had been so
happy?
 My first year in America, I cried myself to sleep every night…. It
was not until a few years later, after I went back, that the pain
went away. Then I realized that I also enjoyed my life in
California. But Terceira has never left me; it is still well within in
my heart…
The one and a half generation

 For others, going to Portugal may signify a return to an intellectual
growth interrupted by emigration. A Luso-descendant, who
emigrated from the island of Saint Jorge to the United States at the
age of nine, told me about his first visit to Portugal, already as a
young adult:
 The first time I set foot in Portugal, I burst into tears and this was even before
I went to the Azores. I remember when I arrived in Guarda… It was a
moment of enormous emotion for me! It was an impressive thing!... After
Guarda, I went to Coimbra and, from there, to the birth city of Portugal:
Guimarães. It was such an emotional moment! I had completed third grade in
Saint Jorge, before I had left to America… I had learned a few things about D.
Afonso de Henriques, Castela and the war… After that, my intellectual life
had been inserted in an American cultural and historical context… Now I
was there, at the castle in the birth city of Portugal, and that was a
monumental occurrence for me.
Variables: Integration and the
maintenance of an ethnic identity

 In another paper, I have argued that Portuguese
Americans are well integrated into American society.
Although educationally, according to American
Community Survey data, they remain under the
national average, in terms of all income indicators
they exhibit levels of attainments significantly higher
than the American averages.
Variables: Context of reception and the
maintenance of an ethnic identity

 In another paper, I have presented data from the online
survey which show Portuguese Americans no longer
experience a negative context of reception in North
America.
 As such “being ethnic” does not inflict economic or
psychological costs as it did to earlier Portuguese
immigrants who endured highly very high levels of
prejudice and discrimination upon their arrival in
America.
 As such Portuguese Americans are free to engage in
selective acculturation or, for those already acculturated,
adopt a symbolic ethnicity.
Online survey: Selective acculturation, symbolic ethnicity
and a dual identity
Strongly Disagree
disagree
I am proud of my Portuguese
63
5
heritage.
5.2
0.4
I am proud of being an
14
31
American.
1.2
2.6
People of Portuguese ancestry
21
16
should do everything possible to
1.7
1.3
maintain their ethnic culture in
America.
America is a good place in
52
25
which to live.
4.3
2.1
Strongly Disagree
disagree
Currently I prefer American
130
209
culture to Portuguese culture
10.8
17.4
Undecide
d
9
0.7
119
9.9
71
5.9
Agree
97
8.1
I like both
equally
753
62.7
435
36.2
Agree
194
16.2
505
42.0
364
30.3
93
7.7
Strongly
Agree
930
77.4
532
44.3
729
60.7
592
49.3
Strongly
Agree
16
1.3
Variables: Self-label identity
Respondents identity self-definition
Identity
Portuguese
Portuguese American
American
Total
Number
324
717
160
1201
Percent
27.0
59.7
13.3
100.0
70.0%
60.0%
50.0%
40.0%
Portuguese
30.0%
Portuguese American
American
20.0%
10.0%
0.0%
One and a
half
Second
Third
Fourth
Identity self-label by generation
Variables: In-group v. out-group
identification
Currently I see myself as
having more in common with
regular Americans than with
other American/Canadian
individuals.
Strongly Disagree
disagree
95
359
7.9
29.9
Undecided
Agree
336
28.0
327
27.2
Strongly
Agree
84
7.0
Logistic binary regression (table not included in this paper due to space
considerations) showed that those who have an in-group identification are
more likely to have experienced a somewhat more negative context of
reception, to be significantly less acculturated into American culture, and to be
more inserted into the ethnic communities. Those who speak both Portuguese
and English at home and who self-define as Portuguese are also somewhat
more likely to have an in-group identification.
Variables: Portuguese use and skills

 Although English presently is the language of international
communication, relations between the ancestral country and the diaspora
communities is affected by the capacity of Luso-descendants to
communicate in Portuguese.
 Given the negative context of reception in the early 20th century, like other
immigrant groups, the Portuguese felt compelled to abandon their
ancestral language in favor of English.
 Despite its adoption of a multicultural and multiracial identity in the
aftermath of the civil rights movement, the United States continues to be a
“graveyard of languages.” Like the languages of other immigrants, the
“life expectancy” (cf. Rumbaut et al.) of Portuguese in the United States is
short, barely surviving into the third generation.
 The data displayed in figures below show that there is a very sharp
decline, from infancy to adulthood, in the percentage of survey
respondents who speak Portuguese at home.
 The online survey data also show a rapid decline in Portuguese fluency
among Luso-descendants. By the third generation, only 9.5 percent of the
respondents speak Portuguese very fluently.
Language at home in infancy and adulthood

Infancy
100%
Adulthood
100%
90%
90%
80%
80%
70%
70%
60%
60%
Portuguese
50%
Portuguese
50%
Both languages
40%
English
Both languages
40%
30%
30%
20%
20%
10%
10%
0%
English
0%
One and a Second
half
Third
Fourth &
beyond
One and a Second
half
Third
Fourth &
beyond
Portuguese speaking skills of
Luso-descendants
1. Don’t
speak
Portuguese
Generation at all
4
One and a
1.2
half
32
Second
Third
Fourth &
beyond
Total
2.
3.
4.
5. Speak
Portuguese
very
fluently
Total
15
4.5
73
21.9
107
32.1
134
40.2
333
100.0
5.7
81
42.9
60
51.3
77
13.7
43
22.8
41
35.0
154
27.4
27
14.3
10
8.5
172
30.6
24
12.7
5
4.3
127
22.6
14
7.4
1
.9
562
100.0
189
100.0
117
100.0
177
14.7
176
14.7
364
22.0
308
25.6
276
23.0
1201
100
Attendance of feasts
Percent
difference
Feast as child
Feast as adult
Never
121
10.1%
353
29.3%
19.2
Once or less per year
211
17.6%
360
30.0%
12.4
A few times per year
798
66.0%
445
37.1%
-28.9
Several times per year
65
5.4%
33
2.7%
2.7
Missing values
11
0.9%
11
0.9
Total
1201
100%
1201
100%

 Note: I have additional indicators of ties to the
communities but because of space limitations, I did
not include them here.
Dependent variable: Keeping up with
the news from Portugal

 Of the respondents who took the survey, over 61
percent keep up with the news from Portugal on a
regular basis.
Strongly
Strongly
Disagree Undecided Agree
disagree
Agree
Currently I keep up with
what is going on in Portugal
through television, news
newspapers, the Internet, etc.
52
4.3
253
21.1
170
14.2
519
43.2
207
17.2
Determinants of keeping informed about
what is going on in Portugal
Variables in the equation
Age
Both parents are Portuguese
Portuguese should maintain their
culture
Interest in Portuguese things as an
adult
America is a good place to live
Proud to be an American
Portuguese language skills
Attendance at family functions as an
adult
Attendance at ethnic feasts as an adult
Number of visits to Portugal
Sending remittances to Portugal
Income
Constant
B
Wald X2
p
0.19
0.51
9.35
6.04
.002
.014
Odds
ratio
1.02
1.67
0.22
5.09
.024
1.24
0.64
35.99
.000
1.89
-0.18
-0.23
0.38
4.73
5.94
27.62
.030
.015
.000
0.84
0.79
1.46
0.19
4.31
.038
1.20
0.33
0.19
0.55
-0.12
-4.10
11.39
9.81
10.57
4.33
.001
.002
.001
.038
1.39
1.21
1.73
0.89
Interpretation of results

 The result of binary logistic regression (with the dependent variable
recoded as a dummy variable, with Agree and Strongly Agree recoded as 1
and the other three categories recoded as 2) show that those who keep up
with the news from Portugal visit the old country more often, are more
likely to send remittances, and are more inserted in the Portuguese
American communities, identify more with Portuguese rather than
American culture and are interested in Portuguese things. People who are
older are also more likely to be informed about Portugal. Portuguese
language skills are a strong predictor, with the odds of keeping informed
about Portugal increasing by a multiplicative factor of 1.4 for each level (1
to 5) of linguistic skill.
 The identity variables per se were unrelated to keeping up with the news,
but those with higher levels of identification with Portuguese culture are
more likely to keep up with the news from Portugal.
 The level of education and occupational prestige were unrelated, while
income had a slightly negative effect.
Dependent variable: Number of visits to Portugal
Frequency
305
201
235
296
155
9
1201
Zero times
One time
Two to three times
Four to nine times
Ten or more times
Missing values
Total
Percent
25.4
16.7
19.6
24.6
12.9
0.7
100.0
80.0%
70.0%
60.0%
Zero times
50.0%
One time
40.0%
Two to three times
30.0%
Two to three times
20.0%
Ten or more times
10.0%
0.0%
One and a half
Second
Third
Fourth
Number of visits to Portugal by generation
Determinants of visits to Portugal
Standardized
β
(Constant)
Generation
Portuguese American identity
State of residence (not East coast)
Both parents Portuguese
Number of children
Level of education
Income level
Percent of Portuguese people in the
neighborhood during childhood
Had to translate for parents
Portuguese not spoken at home in infancy
Portuguese not spoken at home as an adult
Portuguese speaking skills
Keeps up with the news from Portugal
Sends remittances to Portugal
SE
t
p
-.159
.092
-.068
.107
-.092
.128
.088
-.078
.431
.051
.076
.042
.103
.027
.015
.027
.001
.422
-4.76
3.43
-2.83
3.55
-3.72
5.13
3.50
-.3.19
.673
.000
.001
.005
.000
.000
.000
.000
.001
-.114
-.089
-.057
.317
.118
.091
.030
.066
.061
.038
.031
.075
-3.16
-2.09
-2.13
8.62
4.61
3.60
.002
.037
.033
.000
.000
.000
Linear regression results

 Linear regression analysis (only the statistically significant factors are displayed)
shows that with the effect of generation controlled for, the variable which has the
highest level of correlation to the frequency of visits to Portugal is Portuguese
speaking skills, with the language spoken at home also having an effect.
 Those with higher incomes are also more likely to travel to Portugal, but those who
have children are less likely to visit, perhaps due to the expense entailed in family
visits.
 People residing in the east coast are also more likely to visit Portugal and so are
people whose ancestry is fully Portuguese.
 Variables related to connections to the community, such as participation in feasts as a
child and as an adult, were unrelated to the likelihood of visiting Portugal.
 Overall, then, it seems that once we control for generation in the United States, it is
those who are bilingual and those who are more successfully integrated into
American society in terms of income and education, and who keep up with the news
from Portugal, that are more likely to visit Portugal.
Conclusion 1

 In addition to identity, history, and family ties, the
maintenance of an attachment to the country of origin
also provides opportunities for economic, political,
cultural and scientific exchanges beneficial to both the
diaspora communities and the ancestral country.
 For the country of origin, the mobilization and active
involvement with the diaspora communities offers a
venue for the promotion of its economic, political, social
and cultural interests, both at the national and local levels,
as well as for providing crucial support of the teaching
and learning of the Portuguese language in the North
American continent.
Conclusion 2

 The regression analyses included (and not included)
in this study showed that language skills and use are
important factors in the maintenance of a Portuguese
or Portuguese American identity and of ongoing
connections to Portugal.
 The promotion of the Portuguese language in the
United States (cf. Scott, 2010), including among
Luso-descendants, is a highly important action that
Portugal can take in order to help mobilize the
diaspora communities in North America.
Conclusion 3

 The regression analyses (some not included in this
presentation), also showed the importance of connections to the
ethnic communities and rituals in the process of identity
formation and in the maintenance of a connection to Portugal.
 The ethnic feasts and festivals, along with ethnic foods,
museums and monuments will, after all, continue to be the
symbols that belong only to Luso-descendants, to which they
can attach their ethnic identity, and through which they can
continue to maintain their ethnic boundaries in the Americas.
 The immigrant generation needs to allow the young to become
involved in the planning and organization of the ethnic
festivals and events, without fearing that the latter will
“Americanize” them too much.
Conclusion 4

 The data presented in this paper demonstrate that visits to the ancestral
country play a significant role in the process of ethnic identity formation
among Luso-descendants.
 The data also suggests that many of those who are highly interested in
Portugal may not be visiting because they cannot afford it
 For young Luso-descendants, for example, programs of cultural and
academic interchange may have a transforming impact in their lives and
the Leaders of Portugal, whether at a central or a regional level, ought to
facilitate the travel of students from America to the Luso lands.
 Portugal needs to capitalize on the desire for a connection with the
ancestral country and facilitate the travel of Luso-descendants to the
ancestral land; it could, for example, in partnership with American and
Canadian aviation companies, provide affordable flights, originating in
multiple areas of the United States and Canada, and organize special tours,
specifically designed to meet the needs of Luso-descendants.