Multas por atraso

The research findings which serve as the primary source of information for this thesis are fruit of a one-year fieldwork period in Portugal from September 2004 to September 2005. The key objective behind this field- work was to carry out in-depth, semi-structured interviews with immi- grant association leaders, founders, influential members and volunteers tied to the Angolan, Brazilian and Eastern European communities and associations in Portugal. The last of the three groups comprised individ- uals from Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania, Russia and the Ukraine. The to- pics and questions where pre-selected and appeared in the interview in a structured order. In addition, the interviewees were asked to answer a series of closed questions on a continuum scale. Other questions were more open-ended. Beyond the interviews carried out with the associa- tions, further interviews were also carried out with NGO representatives, religious leaders, trade union representatives, local and national level government officials, social service administrators and political party members. The goal was to interview individuals who possess some knowledge of the organisation to which they belong and/or the organisa- tions they deal with.

In total, 110 interviews were carried out, separated into two groups: with individuals tied to associations (either as leaders, founders, mem- bers, workers or volunteers); and with individuals tied to institutions that deal with immigrants and/or immigrant associations. Some of the indi-

viduals interviewed, however, belong to both groups. For example, there are cases of interviewees who are public sector employees in bodies that deal with immigrant issues, and are, at the same time, association lea- ders as well as religious leaders who are also committee members of immigrant associations, etc.1

5.1.1 Interview schedule, subject selection and conducting the interviews Before the main fieldwork period, an interview schedule was designed and pilot-tested. The schedule contained three distinct lines of question- ing: 1) questions that would generate a profile of the institutions being analysed; 2) questions concerning the role and stances of the associa- tions in relation to community integration and identity preservation; and 3) questions relating to the associations’ interface with the Portu- guese formal service structures and opinions held in relation to these structures. These lines of questioning were clearly directed at answering the hypotheses this thesis sets out to investigate. The common issues that guided the development of the interviews can be grouped into the following blocks:2

First, in relation to characterising the institutions:

– General characteristics: location of headquarters and other places/ spaces of action; acquisition of physical space; date when the organi- sation was created and other forms of recognition; history of the or- ganisation; membership numbers, criteria for membership and membership fees; geographical area of action; populations served; forms of funding; legal status; activities carried out; association type and degree of professionalisation (i.e. paid staff).

– Objectives: mission statement and objectives carried out by the or- ganisation– past, present and future, as well as objectives effectively reached.

– Alliances and cooperative actions: other entities they relate with; types of existing relations; objectives and assessments of such rela- tions; history of relations and cooperative actions.

In relation to integration and identity:

– Integration difficulties encountered by the communities. – Cultural differences between ethnic groups.

– Identity and forms of integration favoured by the organisation. – The ways in which the organisation helps the community/commu-

nities it represents.

Lastly, in relation social and community service mechanisms:

– Suggestions to better improve integration conditions for immigrants in Portugal.

In order to select the subjects for interview, a list was compiled of immi- grant associations, social organisations and government institutions on the basis of directories and listings already published, through web searches, and with the help of two immigrant association lists, one com- piled by SOS Racismo (Albuquerque 2002) and a second by ACIME (list of ACIME recognised associations). Through word-of-mouth (‘snowball effect’), more institutions were then added throughout the fieldwork per- iod. This was particularly the case with a small number of the associa- tions that were actually created during the fieldwork period. In relation to public institutions and informants, the objective was to interview those institutions and/or individuals that the associations had meaning- ful working contact with.

The process of choosing the associations to be interviewed also brought about a problem of definition in a number of situations. Ques- tions arose such as: why is an association that caters to Africans in gen- eral considered as an Angolan association, or why is an association that represents immigrants in general considered an Eastern European asso- ciation? The principal criterion used, in this case, was that the majority of the population represented by the association was of the ethnic back- ground in question. This considered, it can be argued that the associa- tions analysed in this study are not only associations of immigrants, but also associations for immigrants.

The question of what constitutes an immigrant association was also defined before the fieldwork took place. An immigrant association was defined as a voluntary, non-profit organisation formed by immigrants, their descendents or host-country nationals that aims its activities at third-country nationals, their descendents or the immigrants’ home- country population. The immigrant voluntary associations chosen for this study can, therefore, be defined as private groups, public-interest groups, grass-root movements, intermediary organisations, goal-or- iented associations, community-interest organisations or home-country movements; the underlining commonality is that they are associations of immigrants and/or for immigrants.

Once the associations were identified, interview management became the next step. First, in setting up interview times and locations, the inter- viewees were contacted via telephone in order to request a meeting. In a small number of cases, an e-mail requesting an interview or a letter of intent was requested by the interviewees. The majority of the interviews were carried out at the headquarters of the associations or the institu- tions (74). The remainder took place in various locations such as shop- ping centres, cafes, restaurants, universities, public parks, places of

work, places of residence, etc., always at the interviewees’ request. Although some interviews were carried out in neighbourhoods that might be characterised by‘outsiders’ as ‘hostile’, at no time did I encoun- ter any situations of risk or harm.

During the interviews, people were invited to collaborate in the re- search by sharing information and thoughts; they were given absolute freedom to answers questions or not.3While some where very talkative, others were at times more reticent in expressing their views and in pro- viding information. Taking into account that I, the interviewer, am a member of the host society, the connotation of‘an outsider looking in’ attached to this position implied neutrality and impartiality in relation to the topics at hand during the interviews. As Arksey and Knight (1999: 103) point out:‘the way we react to people influences the questions we ask, what we hear and how we interpret what is said’. Keeping this point in mind, I found that an impartial position was thus essential with every interview carried out in such a way as not to influence or distort answers and opinions given by the interviewees. Of course, I realise that com- plete neutrality is to some extent a myth, and unintentional biases (and their interpretation by interviewees) can never be totally, in every situa- tion, screened out; however every attempt was made to avoid this.

Regarding the information provided, it was also essential to evaluate the degree of correctness or truth, as well as its relevance to the topic at hand. In order to verify that information given was correct, it was either compared across several interviewees, verified with the help of publica- tions or confirmed through participant observation. Achieving relevancy to the questions asked, on the other hand, was often more a question of patience. In the case of‘professional speakers’, for example, when asked about concrete issues, sometimes this kind of interviewee would try to evade specific, more‘controversial’ topics with a general answer, or pro- vide an answer not relevant to what was asked. In this case, patience became a virtue as it was often necessary to let the individual talk about what he or she wanted in order to relax him/her before asking the more ‘difficult’ questions in a more conversational context.4

5.1.2 Data management and analysis

All interviews were recorded on audio cassettes. The average length of each interview was approximately one hour, with the shortest being 30 minutes and the longest three hours. All interviews were carried out in Portuguese. A translator was utilised in the case of three interviews with Eastern European individuals.5 Interview visits with the interviewees were done no more then twice, with 102 of the interviewees interviewed once, and follow-up interviews with eight of the interviewees.

All interviews were transcribed with additional notes being made when needed. Although transcriptions were to respect the original‘oral life’ of the interview as much as possible, minor improvements to gram- mar were made as needed, in order to make the language of the inter- view more readable. This was especially the case when fluency in the language was precarious. In order to facilitate the writing of this thesis, especially in relation to quotations, all transcriptions were translated into English.

During the fieldwork and after its conclusion, I provisionally classified the transcripts’ raw data according to some of the main topics of the thesis, sometimes changing or merging groupings, or picking new to- pics and questions as needed. In order to analyse similarities, patterns and differences, the process of data triangulation (Arksey and Knight 1999) was undertaken utilising other forms of information – extracts from newspapers, journals, bulletins, pamphlets, diary accounts, oral and visual information gathered, event participation, gatherings, meet- ings, conferences, marches and other forms of public manifestation.

After the collection and categorisation of the information, a process of selection was necessary. The selection processes was governed by the goal of answering the key questions of the thesis, while, at the same time, picking up issues and new questions that could be explored further. It was important, I felt, to keep an open and flexible analytical structure so that unanticipated issues could be taken on board as these new questions arose during the data collection and management stages. In analysing these questions and issues, a mixed approach to description and explanation, using methods both of ‘story-telling’ and ‘explaining’ (justifying actions, giving reasons, supporting claims, etc.), was used. The analysis of this empirical data makes up Chapters 6, 7 and 8 of this study. These are, essentially, my ‘results’ chapters, and they constitute the heart of this book.

5.1.3 Secondary sources: Literary data, participant observation and statistics Throughout (and before and after) the fieldwork period, literary sources were also collected and analysed. The literature primarily refers to pre- vious academic research on immigration in Portugal and press research, which permitted the monitoring of the media discourse in relation to immigrant issues. In particular, two internet sites were consulted on an almost daily basis: the SOS Racismo blog which provides a daily compi- lation of media coverage related to immigration issues, and the ACIME website which also provides news and information on current immi- grant affairs.6Some associations also publish their own newspapers or newsletters, which I collected on a regular basis. Some of these publica- tions include: A Nossa Kubata (Casa de Angola de Lisboa), Comunidade

Activa (União da Juventude Angolana em Portugal), Sábia (Casa do Bra- sil de Lisboa), Bereg (Movimento de Imigrantes Bereg), MICT (Associa- ção dos Ucranianos em Portugal), BMECTE (Associação Apoio ao Imi- grante – São Bernardo), to name a few. Additionally, immigrant print media aimed at specific immigrant communities was also monitored and collected.7

Other materials provided by the different immigrant organisations and government bodies are also worth highlighting. These include, from the associations, various types of journals, bulletins, pamphlets, year-end and activity reports, constitutional status and mission state- ment documents, etc.; reports and journals of trade unions and employ- ers’ organisations; religious publications from religious institutions; documents of NGOs and organised lobby groups; as well as activity re- ports, pamphlets, constitutional papers and other documents from pub- lic administration.

In addition, various forms of participant observation were carried out during the fieldwork period. This includes everything from attending association meetings and general assemblies, fairs and festivals, ceremo- nial events, and organised protests. Although numerous activities took place during my fieldwork year, it was not possible to attend every event that occurred or that I was invited to. However, I do wish to highlight some key ones. These include: the conference on the liberation of the Angolan enclave of Cabinda organised by the association Associação Tra- tado de Simulambuco– Casa de Cabinda; the Ukrainian Christmas mass held in the Lisbon ‘baixa’ (downtown) that drew hundreds of worship- pers; the Moldovan Easter Festival organised by the Centro Cultural Mol- davo; the Núcleo PT’s monthly board meetings; the Sant’iago Fair of Se- túbal, where, during a two-week period (last week of July and first week of August), immigrant associations tied to Setúbal City Hall’s immigrant support centre Setúbal Etnias e Imigração got to promote the associa- tions and display community culture; and lastly, participating in the pro- test march organised by the Platform of Immigrant Organisations for Regularisation and Integration.8

In the case of associations that have close ties to specific neighbour- hoods, field observation of these geographical areas was also underta- ken. I highlight five neighbourhoods visited where a number of Angolan association headquarters or delegations can be found: the Terraços da Ponte Urbanisation (better know as Quinta do Mocho, the name that existed before re-housing took place) and Quinta da Fonte in Loures, Quinta Grande in Lisbon, Outurela/Portela in Oeiras, and lastly, Vale da Amoreira in the municipality of Moita.9Visits to these neighbourhoods permitted observation of the interrelations and networking that exist be- tween the social service providers, day-care centres, leisure centres, cafes, residences, etc. located in the neighbourhood. The social and phy-

sical spaces and environment of these neighbourhoods were investi- gated and triangulated with information provided by the associations in- terviewed in the neighbourhoods, as well as literary sources and pre- vious research on these areas.

To assist me with recording and explicating my fieldwork, a fieldwork diary was kept throughout the year I was in Portugal; not only to keep track of the interview dates, locations, etc., but also to take account of my own thoughts, reflections and experiences as well as those shared by the interviewees. The use of a dairy was particularly useful in recording vi- sual impressions and other experiences and emotions felt at particular moments in order to reflect on them later.

Lastly, although statistical data is not central to this fieldwork research, it is of significant support. The majority of the statistical data used for this study was collected from INE, SEF, ACIME as well as other publica- tions during the fieldwork period. This data has been referred to in Chapter 4.