Migrating Lusophone Outflow towards Canada: the Portuguese and the Brazilian cases

Abstract

This study is the result of an exploratory research carried out in Montreal – subsidized by the Canadian Government in 2006 – and of the reflections on the relation between the lusophone world and the school in the scope of the Research Group Studies on Migrant Populations in Brazil and in the World: The role of the School supported by CNPq and FAPESP.Arising from the contact with a Portuguese and Brazilian community in Canada, this discussion will approach the social-economic semi-peripheral particularity of Portugal and its colonies – more specifically Brazil. We will point out that although this member of the European Union built the longest colonial empire in the history of mankind, the Portuguese diaspora is evident and Canada has been one of the favorite destinations of the Portuguese. Besides that, we put forth that Brazil bears migrating outflow of qualified labor toward Canada. Finally, in the scope of these lusophone population movements, we will discuss: 1- the role of the school in Montreal’s context regarding the dissemination of the lusophone symbolic heritage: language and culture; 2 – the transfer of Brazilian cultural heritage to Canada by means of a phenomenon called brain drain; axes of discussion in which the relationship between the school and the right to lusophone culture is clearly placed.