Shortly after beginning her nursing studies in Portugal, Iracema Ferreira started bringing a dictionary to her classes to counter claims that she spoke Brazilian Portuguese rather than European Portuguese. “I wanted to demonstrate that those words are indeed found in the Portuguese language dictionary,” she explained.
Originally a speech therapist from Brazil, Ferreira relocated to Portugal in 2020. She soon learned from colleagues back home that obtaining a license to practice her profession in Portugal was nearly impossible. Consequently, the 45-year-old decided to abandon her decade-long career in speech therapy and pursue nursing instead.
The challenges faced by speech therapists highlight a broader issue of prejudice that many Brazilians believe still exists within Portuguese society regarding the linguistic variant from their former colony. “This is glottophobia,” stated Tanise Anhaia, president of the Brazilian Speech Therapists Association in Portugal (AFBP), referring to linguistic discrimination.
Since 2019, very few Brazilians have been granted licenses to work as speech therapists in Portugal, according to the AFBP, which was established last year. Among the rare exceptions is a woman whose lawyer successfully contested her rejection as being “completely incomprehensible, illegal, and unconstitutional.”
For many Brazilians living in Portugal, these difficulties are not surprising. With over 480,000 individuals, Brazilians constitute the largest migrant population in the country, as reported by the Portuguese migration agency, AIMA. The Brazilian foreign ministry estimates the number is even higher, predicting 628,000 by 2025.
As the Brazilian community expands, incidents of xenophobia have also increased. A report from the commission for equality and against racial discrimination in 2022 indicated that complaints based on “Brazilian nationality” accounted for 34% of all cases reported.
In 2023, Statistics Portugal revealed that 55% of Brazilians reported experiencing discrimination, the highest rate among nationalities. Last year, a Portuguese man was arrested for offering 500 euros for each “Brazilian head” delivered to him.
A Brazilian woman residing in Lisbon, who wished to remain anonymous, recounted an incident where her eight-year-old child was punched by another student and told, “That’s for Brazilians to learn that they have to go back to their land.” At a school meeting, she recalled a teacher commenting that the children were speaking too “Brazilianized” and that they would need speech therapy themselves.
The rising popularity of Brazilian YouTubers has led many young people to mimic the speech patterns of their favorite influencers, according to parents and linguists. Afrânio Barbosa, dean of the Centre for Letters and Arts at Brazil’s Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, noted a similar concern arose in the 1980s regarding Brazilian soap operas.
Brazil and Portugal are both members of the Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries, which aims to promote the “diffusion of the Portuguese language.” However, the debate over whether the different variants constitute separate languages remains contentious among linguists. “It’s a very complex discussion,” noted Renato Basso, a linguistics professor at the Federal University of São Carlos who focuses on the history of Portuguese.
Basso pointed out that while Brazilian Portuguese spoken by educated individuals in urban areas is quite similar to the European standard, language use varies widely based on geography and social circles in both Brazil and Portugal.
“If one insists on believing there is only one version of a language, it complicates matters significantly,” Basso explained.
Unfortunately, this appears to be the message received by speech therapists. Anhaia recalled that when she took the licensing exam in 2021, there was no linguist present, only a speech therapist. At the conclusion of the exam, the evaluator told her, “I won’t approve you because you don’t speak European Portuguese.” Anhaia plans to retake the exam this year.
Margarita Correia, a Portuguese linguist, criticized the requirement as “absurd.” The licensing authority, ACSS, claimed some candidates lacked the necessary knowledge to assess the Portuguese population and that their degrees were not recognized as equivalent.
The ACSS declined to provide further comments, while the Portuguese Association of Speech Therapists stated that its members were not authorized to speak on the matter.
Álvaro Filho, a Brazilian journalist and author residing in Lisbon since 2016, compiled stories of migrant life in his new book, “Eu Não Falo Brasileiro” (I Don’t Speak Brazilian). One narrative details his son being told by a teacher that “he would only pass the class if he spoke Portuguese.”
