Overcoming as a way of life. Crossing borders: Portugal, Venezuela and Spain
Huelva, Spain
Initiative Typology
Health services access and use, Intercultural integration (neighborhood associations, religious bodies…) , Work opportunities, Community participation (in migrant community associations)
Problem addressed
The main problems identifies in the story of the woman interviewed are:
Job insecurity. Since her arrival in Spain, she has worked in different jobs. However, she would like to be able to stabilize in a job that would give her greater security.
Her eldest daughter’s illness. As she has disability, she needs more attention (sanitary, financial, etc.) The death of her husband.
Resilience strategies addressed by women
Among the strategies developed by the protagonist, we highlight her predisposition and coping with adversity. As soon as she arrived in Spain, she explains in her testimony, she took all the necessary steps to regularize her and her family’s administrative situation. In addition, she undertook the relevant actions to ensure the care and attention that her daughter with cerebral palsy required.
On the other hand, one of the strategies she emphasizes is her character. Being so outgoing and willing to engage in conversation with anyone, she has been able to integrate more easily.
The way she looks at life has been another of her fundamental strategy, especially in times of pandemic (COVID-19). The protagonist stresses the importance of focusing on the present, paying attention to what is happening on a day-to-day basis in order to be able to face adversity.
Finally, the fact that she does not have any relatives in Venezuela has allowed her not to feel the need to return.
Description of the integration initiative implemented
Among the main integration measures in this story are::
- Entering into the labor market. Since her arrival in Spain, she has worked in different jobs related to the care and agricultural sectors. This has allowed her to improve her living conditions.
- Regularizing her and her family situation in Spain from the beginning.
- The socio-health care that her daughter with disability has received since her arrival in Spain.
- Knowledge of the language. Despite being Portuguese, having lived in Venezuela for 38 years has allowed her not encounter any difficulties with the language. Moreover, Spanish was her mother tongue for her children and husband.
- The support network, both from family and friends. Although before arriving in Spain they already had some contact networks, since their stay in Huelva they have managed to forge friendships that have favored their wellbeing and integration.
- Her participation in an association of migrant women in Huelva.
- The closeness of her family. The distance between them is small. This allows her to visit her mother and feel more comforted.
Personal story
The protagonist is 49 years old and has been living in Huelva for 4 years, since October 2017. She is a woman with migration experience. Originally, her nationality is Portuguese, but she and her family migrated to Venezuela, where she has lived most of her life.
She met her husband in Venezuela, with whom she had two daughters and a son. Although their situation there was good, as they were both working and did not lack of economic resources, the political-economic context worsened and the protagonist began to consider the possibility of migrating. However, the trigger that prompted her to leave Venezuela was the illness of her eldest daughter. According to the protagonist, this illness requires care that she could not receive in Venezuela.
Faced with this situation, she and her husband planned to leave Venezuela for Colombia. Once they arrived there, they considered that the conditions were not suitable either, so once again the family planned to travel together to Spain. Initially, the protagonist travelled with her son to Huelva in
As soon as she arrived in Spain, the protagonist took the necessary steps to regularize her and her family situation. As a Portuguese national, she did not encounter any major difficulties, but her husband did, due to his Venezuelan nationality. Furthermore, she took the necessary steps to apply for the social and health care that her daughter needed. Although it was a very bureaucratic process, she received many help from her friends and got all the care her daughter needed. According to her testimony, her daughter receives magnificent care: neurological control, social assistance, etc. In her own words: “I have no complaints about anything at all, because they have achieved the quality I was looking for.”
In relation to her insertion in the labor market, she has carried out different tasks. Specifically she has worked in agricultural campaigns for two seasons and has worked as a live-in carer for the elderly, which is her current job. Although she stresses the sacrifice of not living with her family, she considers it a very comfortable job. Moreover, according to the protagonist, she feels very lucky because she has always had a job.
In terms of her and her family’s integration in Spain, she believes that they are fully integrated and adapted. However, she highlights that her youngest daughter and her husband had more difficulties in integrating at the beginning. She thinks that the fact of being a man conditions the integration process. In the case of her husband, some of the factors that the protagonist considers to have hindered integration were his Venezuelan nationality (greater difficulty in regularizing his situation) and the difficulties in finding a job as a man. According to her perception, in Huelva there is more work for women. Despite these initial difficulties that some of her family members had, and although she feels 100% Portuguese, the protagonist wants to stay in Huelva because she feels very well.
In this line, one of the issues highlighted by the interviewee throughout her testimony is the support she has received from institutions, highlighting mainly the networks of friendships that this has allowed them to create.
Finally, regarding her future plans, she does not plan to return to Venezuela, although she might visit. She liked Huelva very much for the quality of life it offers her daughter, the climate, the health care, etc. For this reason, she would like to be able to stabilize herself economically and emotionally, even if she is aware that with the situation generated by COVID-19 she will have to wait two or three years to achieve this stability. AT the same time, her greatest wish is for her three children to be well and for her to be able to be with them, “I don’t need anything more than that.”
Analysis of the initiative and individual story
Among the main integration initiatives highlighted are:
RESOURCES AND SUPPORT:
- The social and health care support that her daughter with disability receives..
- The association in which she participates.
- The network of friends in the destination town. Before arriving in Huelva, she already had friends in the locality and has subsequently forged new networks.
- The closeness of her family.
CULTURAL IDENTITY:
- Migration has not changed anything for the protagonist. She has been able to adapt to the destination culture.
- Her cultural identity has been built up throughout her life. Since she was a child, she emigrated from her country to Venezuela and, in recent years, to Spain. She feels very well and fulfilled.
WORK:
- Having been in some kind of profession since her arrival in Huelva has allowed her to cover her economic needs. She feels fortunate to have always find a job.
MOTIVATION FOR MIGRATION:
- Her daughter’s illness, together with the difficult social, political and economic situation in Venezuela, prompted the protagonist and her family to travel to Huelva.
Results and Impact
The protagonist is very satisfied with the impact that migration has had on her and her family. The main objective was to improve the quality of life of everyone, especially her daughter with disability, and she thinks they have achieved it. She feels very satisfied with what has been achieved and, according to her testimony, she has no complaints about “absolutely nothing”. She just wants her children to achieve the goals they set for themselves so that they can have a good future.
