Obviously, quite a few Ukrainians now wish for at least a rudimentary knowledge of the Portuguese language and a little money to buy traditional Portuguese brief pants with gaiters, a vest, wide belt, and round wide-brimmed sombrero in the south or a knitted cap when seeking a fast buck in the north of Portugal. Ukrainian women would also like to stroll Lisbon or Porto wearing a local full striped apron dress, headscarf, and loafers on chunky wooden soles without heelpieces.
They dare not breathe a word in Ukrainian in the foreign land — maybe only among themselves and in a low voice just to satiate the hunger for the mother tongue. Parting with their hard-earned money, they curse unpatriotically their compatriots and then themselves for not having learned to conceal their Ukrainian origin.
According to researchers at Coimbra University in Portugal, inhabitants of Ukraine’s western regions are a prevailing majority among the Ukrainian workforce in Portugal.
Expert estimates suggest that between 6 and 7 million Ukrainians are temporarily employed abroad or have settled there permanently, with Portugal accounting for their biggest community of 150,000. The majority are professionally trained men aged 18 to 50. As a rule, Ukrainians perform backbreaking labor, though many of our folk proved to be quite skilful mechanics and painters. A research fellow at the Ivan Franko Lviv National University, Viktor Susak, claims that the “demographic gap” in Portugal is filled largely by Ukrainian emigrants, 90% of whom have university degrees. According to Mr. Susak, if the workforce drain continues at such a pace, in the near future Ukraine will face the same demographic problem that has afflicted all European countries.
In fact, only the Portuguese authorities can give a rough estimate of the immigration influx from Ukraine. Our officials, though, cite the shortcomings of legislation as the root cause of their inability to keep track of our compatriots. According to Mykola Tovt, deputy chief of the Department for Nationalities and Migration at the Zakarpattia Oblast State Administration, his department’s terms of reference are restricted to refugees on Ukrainian territory. He suggested, however, that we turn to Ludvig Frint, director of the Oblast Employment Center. He was on sick leave and his colleagues told this author that firms in Transcarpathia offering employment abroad should report to the employment center, but, in fact, they insist they send no one abroad. I was given contact numbers of a number of firms licensed to employ people to work abroad. However, everything turned out even worse than I expected. After a number of unsuccessful attempts to contact Inter Jobs, Unicom Service, and Helicon firms, I turned to Vasyl Itio, chief of the Oblast Statistics Department, who said that workers travel abroad under various pretenses, mostly illegal and half- legal, so registering them is hardly possible.
Brazilians were traditionally considered the biggest hooligans and rogues in Portugal, but even they never spoil for a fight and flee the local flophouses on the double when they sense a brewing quarrel, yelling something like: “Help! Ukrainians have gone mad again!”
But the Portuguese police are indifferent to such international conflicts on a local scale, saying: “You can strangle one another so long as you keep clear of the Portuguese.” Many of the latter settle in Brazil, France, USA, Canada, and Germany. Thus, they treat Ukrainians as birds of passage coming here en masse to do the jobs that they cannot cope with themselves. Portugal, just as Ukraine now, saw a similar exodus in the 1960s.
So what does it feel like to work in Portugal? The Day ’s correspondent approached a few wage earners for comment.
Viktor HAYDU, Berehovo:
“We had our papers processed by a Kyiv firm. Then we crossed Germany and before long found ourselves in Lisbon. There, the so- called employment agents brought us to a hotel and vanished. After waiting for a month for them to show up, we started looking for jobs on our own. And we found them through a Portuguese social center. From there we moved to Porto, where our masters picked us up from a similar social center. Their social centers are a kind of our employment centers. In fact, they help the needy. They took us to their lawyer who made out a contract so that we could obtain a visa for one year. Then they took us to their office to show us what to do. We either repaired or installed louvers (they called them curtains) on the outside. Though an easy job, it didn’t pay well, something like $360 per month. By contrast, cabinetmakers and electricians made as much as $1000. But we were not lucky enough to find such jobs.”
His companion Ishtvan TOVT from Chop picks up:
“We worked eight hours a day. We could see, however, that there was not enough work for all of us, as there were few orders. Although our employers promised us a raise, they kept forgetting about it, or so they said. They hardly gave us anything to eat. We had to pay the rent ourselves. The meals, very frugal for that matter, cost us $80 per month. We eat a lot more in Ukraine. Our usual meals consisted of the fried eggs and bread with margarine for breakfast, soup or borshch for late dinner, and pasta or potatoes served with a cutlet or rissole for supper. Frozen mincemeat is cheap there. Their traditional dishes — fried cod and other fish, shellfish, corn soup — we couldn’t afford.”
Petro BORKOSH, Serednie:
“The level of unemployment among our folk is staggering. It makes people savage. The five of us were mobbed. They took all we saved after two months’ work, $130 to 150 each. They even took my driver’s license. They must have overheard some of our fools speaking Ukrainian in the street. Keep mum if you don’t speak any other languages. Your own brethren will get you! Some live from this. They don’t want to work for peanuts like we do. They broke into our house, one wielding a gun, two others brandishing knives. We gave them all we had. However, on the whole our racketeers are civilized. They will warn you in advance, tell you how much to pay, and if you don’t, they will kill you. Constant fear made me take to my heels.”
Ivan HUSENKO, Uzhhorod:
“Our masters went looking for a dwelling for us. The Portuguese don’t rent apartments to Ukrainians. The boss must pledge that we will pay. The bills are mailed to the master, who tells us how much we should pay. We chip in and he pays. That is to say, he is in fact the leaseholder. Our folks like to save on trifles like these.
In hindsight, one could make as much money at home if one tried harder. But for some reason one doesn’t feel like exerting oneself; it must be a virus of a kind. Five in ten of our folk have well-paying jobs there, making $1500 per month employed in construction and doing the dirtiest of jobs. There are people from all across Ukraine. With a little luck one can make a fortune in three years. One Uzhhorod family settled there. Now they are singing Portuguese songs instead.”
INCIDENTALLY
On February 12-13, Portuguese Foreign Minister Martins da Cruz visited Kyiv, where he met with President Leonid Kuchma, Verkhovna Rada Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn, Foreign Minister Anatoly Zlenko, and Premier Viktor Yanukovych.
The talks resulted in the signing of an agreement on temporary migration of Ukrainian workforce to Portugal. The agreement legalizes the rules of employment of Ukrainians in Portugal and grants them a status equal to that of seasonal workers. Interestingly, to obtain a visa, Ukrainians seeking employment in Portugal should contact Portuguese Embassies in Moscow or Warsaw. So far there is no consular section in the Portuguese Embassy in Kyiv, but they are planning to open one toward year’s end.
Nonetheless, transit or tourist Portuguese visas can be obtained in Kyiv. They are issued by the German Embassy, which has made a corresponding arrangement with the Portuguese Embassy. However, the information on the number of transit or tourist visas is for administrative use only, The Day was told by the Portuguese Embassy in Ukraine. This prompts us to conclude that most Ukrainians make it to Portugal as tourists or transit passengers.
