Título
Resilience among Ghanaian migrants in Lisbon in accessing family reunification and learning of Portuguese language
Autor
Parry, Rita Adoma
Resumo
en
This study explores the resilience of Ghanaian migrants in their migration trajectories,
their transnational parenting experiences, language learning practices and plans of
reunification in Lisbon, Portugal. The resilience theory informed the theoretical and
analytical base for the study. A non-probability (snowball technique) sampling was
used for selecting migrants who had had intentions of reuniting with their families in
Portugal. A qualitative orientation research approach was employed to investigate the
phenomenon among seven respondents using in-depth interviews. Textual analysis of
policy documents, participant observations (both on sites and online) were used as
sources of data as well. The study identified the delay in their regularization processes
and lack of financial resources to fulfill requirements as the main challenges Ghanaian
migrants in Lisbon faced in the process of accessing family reunification in Portugal.
Despite the challenges, Portugal’s migration policies were perceived by migrants as
friendly and benevolent to advance their future aspirations. Furthermore, transnational
parenting practices including constant communication and sending of remittances
played important roles in migrants’ efforts in maintaining family ties across borders.
Importantly, individual skills and support from migrant networks served as the
participants' main resilience strategies during their migration trajectories and while they
anticipated family reunification. Lastly, resilience in learning Portuguese language was
demonstrated through migrant’s self-determination to overcome language and
communication barriers by adopting people-to-people strategies, technology-based
language learning applications and accessing state provided language programs. In
conclusion, due to the perceived permissive measures in Portugal’s migration policies,
Ghanaian migrants in Portugal are likely to opt for long term settling in the country. In
this way, the gradually increasing numbers of Ghanaian migrants will contribute to the
overall linguistic and cultural diversity in Portugal as they bring along their cultural
baggage such as ways of engaging in transnational parenting, family models and
practices and their language learning strategies.