Living in Portugal as an immigrant, you live in a bubble. You most likely don’t speak fluent Portuguese, and your friends are most likely not native Portuguese. If Portuguese people hold a hatred against you as an immigrant from Canada, they generally will be polite to you face. Even your social media feeds will look different because you will not be seeing or reading Portuguese posts.
After three years here, my lawyer sent me a post in Portuguese about the new Nationality Law on Instagram, and I discovered that Instagram has a “translate all comments” option. I read 800 comments from Portuguese people on the subject of immigration in english translation, and I am completely traumatized by the experience. The ubiquity and intensity of the hatred directed at immigrants like me was terrifying. I am not alone in noticing this trend, the European Parliament is monitoring the situation closely. 12
But verbal threats are not limited to social media. Recent wins in parliament have emboldened ethnic nationalists to start harassing tourists and immigrants in the streets. I have started encountering problems frequently when frequenting tourist areas, nearing sporting events, or going to events where alcohol is served. People speak to me in Portuguese, and if I respond in English that I don’t understand them, things quickly escalate to screaming and threats of violence. I no longer feel safe leaving the house at night.
In the case of a violent attack, I have no faith that the police will come to my aid. It seems that every month I hear new stories of police officers brutally beating, raping and killing handcuffed immigrants, and brazenly boasting of their violent acts and sharing video on WhatsApp and other social media. They know that the population of Portugal cheers them on in this behaviour and that there will be no consequences. Amnesty International warned earlier this year of an “enormous sense of impunity” among police officers in Portugal, because in many cases victims of abuse are “too afraid to file a complaint”. 3
This is written from a Canadian perspective. Americans may have a higher tolerance for violence, racism, anti-immigrant behaviour and police brutality. But as a Canadian, I have travelled the world and many places that were considered “unsafe” for LGBTQ++, Jewish or affluent white people. Compared with Central America, North Africa, and even Russia, Portugal feels more dangerous to me now somehow.