Let's see if we understand each other: What would become of our country, or even Europe, if it didn't have the significant workforce of immigrants?
Whether in the areas of transport, agriculture, construction, fishing, catering and hotels, healthcare, nursing homes or care for the elderly, tourism, and so on. I would stop. I would fail. I would scream. I would lose my footing in this fast-paced, competitive world.
Ajit Hanssraj, outgoing president of the Hindu community, recalled yesterday that it is often immigrants who provide the “ 3D Work ”: Difficult , Dirty , Dangerous .
In return, Portugal has the moral and ethical obligation to guarantee back dignity and human rights, respecting and integrating all people who choose to live and contribute to our country.
Distrust based on nothing
Let there be no doubt, immigrants help sustain the economy , in addition to bringing us more world and cultural diversity.
But there are those who look at them with suspicion , and the government seems to irresponsibly feed this discomfort, based on nothing.
In the year in which the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April is celebrated, and just a few days before Christmas, the PSP and the government presented this Thursday several dozen immigrants on Rua do Benformoso, in Martim Moniz, with malicious, humiliating and perverse treatment, worthy of the former fascist regime.
As if it were a firing squad.
I felt ashamed and repulsed by the way those people, just because they were immigrants, were pushed against the wall, with their backs turned, as if there was a gang of dangerous ruffians there, ready to commit crimes.
Who prevaricated, after all?
“To prevaricate,” according to the dictionary, means “to betray, out of interest or bad faith, the duties of one’s office or ministry or to abuse the exercise of one’s office.”
Now, it was the government and the police who were guilty of this. Because there were no reasons based on solid and concrete data for such a blatant and large-scale action. And the government must be questioned and scrutinized about this. The criticism is mounting.
We cannot allow these types of operations, targeting entire neighborhoods, to become normalized. They send a clear and dangerous message:
For this government, all immigrants from the Indian subcontinent are criminals until proven otherwise, creating and reinforcing the wrong perception of social unrest. The same thing has happened in the Zambujal neighborhood.
This is to validate a series of discriminatory and persecutory policies against ethnic minorities.
Montenegro claimed that this special operation was “important” to create “visibility and proximity” in policing and to increase the feeling of “security” and “tranquility”. But that’s not the case. What Montenegro did was push the values of our democracy against the wall.
And not only did it gratuitously tarnish the Hindu immigrant community, it also left the country looking ashamed, due to its past and present so marked by emigration.
How would we feel if the French (or English) government decided to do the same to the many Portuguese people who work there?
Wrong and unfair perceptions
There is no evidence that immigrants in Portugal create more insecurity and more crime, as the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation (FFMS) Immigration Barometer proves . What exists are erroneous, unrealistic, unfair and unfounded perceptions .
But with all this, a new feeling of shock , fear and revolt is growing. And no, it is not fear of immigrants. It is shock with this right-wing coalition government, with xenophobic, racist and authoritarian tendencies, increasingly aligned with a certain far-right worldview, instigating hatred and distrust against racial and ethnic minorities.
We need a democratic and humanist government, whether on the right or the left, so that we do not become hostages to delusional security and extremist narratives that feed wrong perceptions, pitting some against each other, in a growing inability to deal with diversity, pushing it against the wall. Where will this end?
I remember the words of my interviewee this week, the writer Patrícia Portela:
“ 2024 is the year in which a United Europe will be naked, hiding behind a thin thong of hypocrisy every time it addresses issues such as refugees, immigration or the conflicts unfolding on its doorstep.”
I leave you with a Christmas suggestion
This Christmas I suggest you do some of your shopping in Martim Moniz, in local shops, with very reasonable prices.
Take your whole family, your children, and on this trip, discover new condiments, products and foods in the neighborhood grocery stores and shops, or in the two shopping centers that are there, eat a meal there, talk to the immigrants who work there, who are friendly, polite and helpful.
And they will realize that the area is truly safe and that what Prime Minister Luís Montenegro perhaps lacks is the courage to break out of his bubble of privilege to get to know that Lisbon neighborhood better (which, by the way, has always been multiethnic), and understand the desires and struggles of the neighborhood's population, who are part of this country's workforce.
Perhaps your perception will change if you try a beautiful and sweet Indian 'bebinca', talk to the local immigrants, with empathy, interest and curiosity, because those people, above all, bring multiculturalism to Lisbon. Insecurity does not live there.
NOTE: As a reaction to what happened this Thursday on Rua do Benformoso, a demonstration is being organized by a group of citizens on January 11th, with the meeting point set at 3 pm, on Alameda, in a march to Praça do Martim Moniz, under the motto “DON'T STAY UP AGAINST THE WALL, MARCH.” May it be a great demonstration!