Deconstructing the country of Floribella
Bragança, Portugal
Institutions involved
HEIs, Educational institutions
Initiative Typology
Financial support, University policies on access to higher education, Work opportunities, Language or/and culture courses
Problem addressed
Upon her arrival in the host country she realizes the need to create personal and economic autonomy (her father, who resides in this country, is not available to help her and she realizes that it is impossible to depend financially on her adoptive grandparents and her biological mother).
The realization of her father's lack of financial support leads her to a situation of economic insecurity that makes her look for work.
Besides, she perceives in herself a feeling of incomprehension towards racist acts, which leads her to question, incessantly, her origin, her identity, and the way she perceives her relationship with others. This process which arose from this lack of understanding triggered personal questioning and led to a conviction that her path to inclusion would necessarily go through processes of mutual acceptance.
When she finally enrolls the degree she has chosen and which carries the weight of being the migratory goal, she finds that it does not correspond to what she had idealized. This fact leads her to a state of uneasiness.
Resilience strategies addressed by women
The strategies mobilized to cope with the problems focused initially on achieving financial autonomy to reach her migratory goal: obtaining an academic qualification in the field of communication and/or performing arts. She went to work for 3 years in another country (Spain), a strategy created with the help of an adoptive aunt living in Spain.
In this migratory journey, the expectation of the support of her family network had weight: her adoptive grandparents, her biological father, and her aunt residing in another European country. If, in the speech we perceive that these expectations of support did not always come true (in the case of the father), we can still highlight the importance of the family support network, both in the country of origin and from other relatives living in Europe.
She assumes the need to deconstruct the feeling of incomprehension of racist acts, through reflection and discussion with her partner, readings, and by creating a strategy of acceptance that the problem does not reside only in the other.
In relation to her migratory objective, the attendance of the first year of the course, marked by disagreement with her study plan, the teaching methodologies and consequently with the teachers, impels her to go to the school management and to feel that at least she is heard.
Description of the integration initiative implemented
She now feels integrated in the host country.
The measures implemented to achieve this are related to: the acceptance of the other's perspectives; the self determination not to lose her goal and to work previously in the "intermediate" country, to continue working part-time whenever possible and to do short-term training in her preferred area.
As for the social support network, she mentions three family nuclei (adoptive family, biological mother, and her partner's family), the training institution, her colleagues from the country of origin who came to study at the same institution, and in the last two years her relationship with her partner (born in the host country).
At first, the group of colleagues from the country of origin was very important, then the higher education institution is mentioned as having played an important role in her integration and, currently, she mentions that her partner and her family are key elements in her inclusion process.
Personal story
She is 29 years old, born in Cape Verde. She lived with her adoptive grandparents who raised her and maintained an emotional relationship with her biological mother. She is attending the last year of a degree course in the field of arts. Her migration goal is based on obtaining higher education in this area.
The choice of Portugal is naturally due to the cultural and historical proximity of the two countries. She arrived in Portugal and went to Porto. He has always tried to work in order to finance herself.
The decision to migrate was supported by her adoptive grandparents and her biological mother (what she could), and the financial support for this decision was mainly from her adoptive family. When planning the migration, she contacted her biological father living in Portugal, who committed to financially support her during her training, which ended up not happening. Given the difficulties described, she resorts to the support of an adopted aunt who resides in another country that takes her in to achieve her financial autonomy.
The motivations behind her choice of destination country are linked to the "illusion" built about Portugal. This illusion was greatly nourished by the imagery reproduced by the Portuguese youth series. The importance of learning, of training; of a broader life horizon have always been part of it.
The possibility to contribute to the improvement of the economic, social and cultural life of the biological mother and siblings and to support the old age of the adoptive grandparents.
The evolution felt since she arrived in Portugal and the "turning point" are located in two aspects: the openness to the other and the conciliation of different points of view on the experience of multicularity (although she recognizes and condemns racist behaviors and attitudes). The love relationship with her partner, a Portuguese national, was born out of that openness. Another relevant aspect is the change in the study plan of her course, which helps her to overcome her dissatisfaction and motivates her to fulfill her initial migration goal.
Her sense of identity is based on belonging to two countries, the country where she was born and the host country. She feels she belongs to both. Her choice to join the association of African students, of which she is vice president, leads her to have a greater intervention with her colleagues and support them in practical issues of integration into the community and to "give the face" and ideas for the recognition that we can all live better in community, regardless of color, culture, gender, and experiences. She is a woman and an activist. She is a woman with a lust for knowledge. To achieve her goals, she admits that she has to "fight harder" for being a woman and for being black.
She finds in herself, in her three families, and in her partner the support she needs.
Analysis of the initiative and individual story
The migratory project of this woman is related to the search for higher education and the illusion of the country of Floribella (TV series)
The difficulties experienced are related to the search for understanding (or even excusing) the other's perspective towards racist attitudes and behaviors. He/she assumes that these exist and he/she also lives and has lived them, although it is clear that he/she relativizes them. In this way, she finds in herself, in her capacity of reflection, search for knowledge and understanding of the diversity of perspectives, her main strategy for
Life.
The support of her "new" family (her partner's family) places her in a comfortable situation, affectively and even financially, to fulfill her goal and to feel that Floribella's country is also hers.
Results and Impact
This success story highlights the importance of personal resilience characteristics to live in a country and, above all, in a city where the measures for integration of African descendants are not at all visible to the "naked eye".
In this way, the results of his success should be attributed to herself. The frankness, transparency and openness that characterize her constitute an example in the institution she attends and to which she recognizes the contribution to her success.
