Few European countries have a history of emigration as long and intense as Portugal's. An estimated two million people born in Portugal live abroad, one of the highest proportions in Europe relative to population, and descendants of Portuguese around the world number many millions more. It is no accident that the national day on 10 June is called "Day of Portugal, of Camões and of the Portuguese Communities".
From the discoveries to Brazil
Portuguese emigration began with the discoveries and the empire: from the sixteenth century thousands of Portuguese left for India, Africa and above all Brazil, which remained the main destination until the twentieth century. In the nineteenth century whole generations of young men from the Minho and the Beiras left for Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo; some came back rich, the so-called "brasileiros de torna-viagem", and built colourful mansions, schools and hospitals in their villages. From the Azores and Madeira, people left instead for the United States (especially Massachusetts, Rhode Island and California), Hawaii, Canada, Venezuela and South Africa.
The great emigration of the 1960s
The most dramatic phase came in the 1960s and early 1970s, during the dictatorship and the colonial wars: about a million and a half Portuguese left the country, mainly for France, but also Germany, Luxembourg and Switzerland. Many left "a salto", clandestinely, crossing the Pyrenees on foot to escape poverty or conscription for the wars in Africa. Huge shanty towns grew up around Paris, such as the one at Champigny-sur-Marne. The Portuguese community in France is still one of the largest in Europe, and in Luxembourg people of Portuguese origin make up about a sixth of the population.
Emigrants' houses and August
Emigrants' remittances supported the economy of many regions for decades. The most visible sign is the "casas de emigrante", houses built in the home village with a lifetime's savings, often with French or Swiss architectural touches, steep roofs and colourful tiles, dotted across the landscape of the north and centre. Every August emigrants return en masse for the holidays, in cars with French or Swiss plates, and the villages fill up for the patron saints' festivals.
The exodus of the young
During the 2011-2014 crisis emigration returned to very high levels: more than a hundred thousand people a year left the country, many young and highly educated, for the UK, Switzerland, Germany, France and Angola. Even today, despite the recovery, many qualified young people leave for higher wages, and the state has created schemes such as Regressar, with tax breaks for those who return. Saudade, that so typically Portuguese longing, is also a child of this long history of departures.