La dictature de Salazar face à l'émigration

KEYWORDS: Portugal – Salazar – Migration Policies

The Portuguese State, dominated by the oldest right-wing dictatorship in Europe, faced massive departures, depriving it of over 15% of its population. Despite two emigration agreements between France and Portugal, over 500,000 Portuguese citizens entered France illegally.
So how did the Salazar dictatorship manage to maintain ties with its expatriates in France, monitor their whereabouts, and export fear even beyond the Pyrénées, in the « country of human rights »?

Furthermore, how did the Portuguese State absorb such a shockwave, then articulate it in the debates around economic and social modernization, the preservation of the Empire, the gradual merge with Europe, and other themes that split the dictatorship's elites so deeply?

The author: Victor Pereira holds PhD in History from the Institute of Political Studies in Paris. He is a lecturer at the University of Pau and Pays de l'Adour.