″The only difference that denounces the Ukrainians in Portugal is the accent″
In the 1990s, a crisis experienced in their country led many Ukrainians to emigrate. Today, in Portugal, there are around 28,000, with a presence in all the mainland districts and autonomous regions, but in 2008, they reached around 80,000. There are still between 11 and 1 nationality2, not a thousand Service, therefore, in the statistics on Foreigners and Borders. They feel good in our country and Pavlo Sadokha, president of the Association of Ukrainians in Portugal (AUP), says that “the only difference that denounces the Ukrainians in Portugal is the accent” – and even this no longer exists when he spoke of the older generations new.
“Ukrainians felt well integrated and welcomed in Portugal. We have felt that since the beginning”, the AUP leader tells DN.
And sets your own example. “I arrived in Portugal in 2, they still knew that everyone didn’t know our language.
The first wave of Ukrainians began to arrive in Portugal in the second half of 1999, following a growth that reached its maximum in 2001. Job vacancies for Ukrainians. But always with your nation in mind. It started to emerge two or three years after our mass arrival in Portugal”, recalls Pavlo Sadokha.
Most Ukrainians in Portugal come from the west, including the regions of Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankiusk, Zakarpattia and Chernivtsi, according to the study “Ukrainian Immigration in Portugal and Southern Europe”, promoted by the Immigration Observatory and published in 201. Most Ukrainians in the same initial vacancy, as civil construction and public works servant, see the document. “When we came in the first wave, the majority would be between 25 and 40 years old. Therefore, we can say that it is still a relatively new community”, says the president of the AUP.
They have schools, churches and associations
Pavlo Sadokha cannot be repeated that the Ukrainians were integrated from the beginning in Portugal. But the early years were not without danger. “When we arrived, 2000, a problem was thought, because ex-torques were thought to be people who are much more dangerous. The children of immigrants, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of immigrants, children of children, children of children, children of immigrants, children of children, children of children, children of children, children of immigrants, children of children, children of immigrants, children of children, children of children, children of immigrants, children of marriage” I also remember the first Christmas mass in 2001 in our church in Lisbon, in São Jorge de Arroios, and to which Jorge Sampaio was president. Remind me well of his words. “You are welcome, you are safe. The president of this country was telling our emigrants that they can be here as welcome. This is fundamental to ours.”
Other community actions that helped to integrate the Portuguese program for the integration of doctors u recognition. “There was also, in recognition08, an agreement with Ukraine and Portugal for higher education school diplomas, that is, between us and the basic higher education diploma, because we could already have recognized our equivalence works in the professions we had in Ukraine. “, recalled Pavlo Sadokha, himself of the latter, as he was able to exercise his profession as an economist. To say that now, at this moment, Ukrainians can already start to be part of an average social level, many Ukrainians have already opened companies, they will work according to their profession, as the children are very well integrated, they even enter higher education.”
In terms of organization, the Ukrainian churches in Portugal exert a great influence on the community, namely the Greek-Catholic Church and the Catholic Church of the Byzantine Rite, which, according to Sadokha, has 17 or 18 priests throughout the country. There is also the Ukrainian Orthodox Church, which “has a smaller establishment, but with a great influence”, explains Sadokha. “Then we have Ukrainian associations, which currently have 14, but I know that in recent weeks new ones have been created with the aim of helping Ukraine. And we have Saturday schools – for example, ours in Lisbon since 2005 -, where Ukrainian children, on Saturdays or Sundays, have classes in Ukrainian language and culture”, lists the president of the AUP.
