Comment by EL_Loco | Hacker News Reader

Comment by EL_Loco | Hacker News Reader

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Sorry to ask you this, and please fell free to not respond. But I have wanted to move to Portugal with my wife and kids for quite some time, but the large number of Brazilians linving and moving there bum me out to an extent. Mostly, I don't know what is the general feeling towards Brazilians in Portugal (I went there a few times, and absolutely loved it, but it was travel, not living). I'm not a fan of Brazilian mainstream culture, mostly. We are outgoing, friendly and warm, sure, and those qualities I embrace and celebrate, however, there are many negatives to Brazilian culture that are widespread (anti-intellectualism, veiled prejudice, sexism etc). I don't know what most Brazilians in Portugal are like, and I know that it will vary greatly, but how much hostility is there towards Brazilians? Every person I met in Portugal was pretty nice, and some were downright great people, and I would love to live there, but I'm afraid my kids might have a bad experience from being Brazilian immigrants in school, etc.

In the 90s and early 00s there were a lot of lower class/uneducated Brazilian immigrants moving here and a small but significant part of them would cause all sorts of trouble, from bothering neighbors with loud parties in apartment buildings all the way to being involved in prostitution and violent crimes. This caused a significant amount of prejudice but that has mostly subsided since then as the next waves of Brazilian immigrants have been progressively higher class and more educated, and thus better integrated in our society.

Nowadays there is still some prejudice but the vast majority of people does not have any issues with Brazilians and, unless you are unlucky enough to run into some asshole, you'll probably not notice it at all. Kids care even less about these things so your kids are very unlikely to be bullied in school or anything like that.

In fact, my partner is originally from Brazil and her family moved here when she was 13. She always had friends, never really felt discriminated against, and is now sitting next to me working on her PhD thesis. The rest of her family loves it here too.

So I would say if you want to move here, go for it! Boa sorte :)

Thanks a lot for your reply!

I’m not the original commenter, but I’m Portuguese living a small city and I’d say most Brazilians that live here can blend easily. My kids have some Brazilian friends at school at they get along well.

Thank you too for your reply!

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