Criminalization waves in Portugal

1. Criminalization waves in Portugal António Pedro Dores, http://iscte.pt/~apad Toulouse, 19/21 October 2007

2. Summary • Social integration problems in Portugal • Immigrant's social classification in Portugal • Ethnic discriminative feelings in Portugal • Non Nationals criminalization data • Causes of criminalization waves • Criminalization processing

3. Social integration problems • Poor and ideological biased Welfare State • Egoistic regional, social and age concentration of wealth • State use of clandestine working class • Working class neighbourhoods racial and youth tension • Unemployment problems emerges

4. Immigrant's social classification • No Muslim public discrimination problem – they are respected and moderate minorities, as are Jews or Buddhists. • Immigrant social studies are focused on Africans, Brazilians and East European people.

5. Ethnic discriminative feelings • Asian immigrants exist. Two times it happens isolated political discriminating declarations against Chinese business (Madeira and Lisbon). • Stronger has been the episode of a fake collective robbery (allegedly 500 black people) in a popular beach near Lisbon

6. Discriminative social feelings (II) • Brazilian dentists are the first immigrant wave to Portugal, in the late 80´s. Discrimination by doctors professional association stopped by diplomatic arrangements. They represented an up grade modernization of teeth care in Portugal.

7. Discriminative social feelings (III) • Eastern Europe immigrant came by late 90´s and are welcomed by press – arguing they were very well educated (engineers and doctors working as workers at building industry). • The same people has been stigmatized as Eastern mafias by security services, as a way to legitimate taught control against intensive immigrant wave

8. Discriminative social feelings (IV) • Many dozens of Eastern doctors immigrated in Portugal has been recruited by FCG in order to be recognized as professionals to help Portuguese health care system lake of doctors.

9. Non Nationals criminalization data • Fonte: http://www.dgsp.mj.pt/frameset_info.html, 2-10-2007 Percentage of foreigner inmates in Portuguese prisons Number of inmates (comparing foreigner inmates)

10. Gender criminalization of foreigners

11. Nationality criminalization

12. What are the causes for the criminalization waves? • International politics (fear of new kind of immigrants inside EU, for instance) • National mood to accept international politics (historical national feelings about other people: semi-peripherical society) • National State policies on migration

13. Traditional criminalization • Lake of knowledge about social power taboos: • one figures prison as the house of criminals, even when holocaust is happening; • secrecy of criminalization policies (court, police, prison system, statistics); • political influences over judicial decisions; • institutional equilibrium between state powers.

14. Political criminalization • Clandestine political opposition wrote the history of criminalization waves against it; • Today we are free to know what happened (60´s), when it is all over; • Most inmate do not read or write , do not know their rights; • The knowledge about changing prison lives is social taboo & state secret;

15. Recent criminalization waves in Portugal • Disciplining bank check uses (80´s) first changing movements to capitalism; • War on drugs (90´s) caused overcrowded prisons and increment drug dealing profits (including inside prisons)

16. Old criminalization waves: political historical and social relevance • Jews (250 years Portuguese Inquisition) • Jesuits • Gypsies (we know it because they resist several expulsion policies) (foreigners has 5 times their representation in prison and gypsies have 10 times)

17. Criminalization processing • Decriminalization waves; the bank check; the drug consume; • Politics and legislative processing (socialist security politics in Portugal) • Judiciary politics and policy (the mission of the Prosecutor General; the ideological and social education of Portuguese judges; the crisis of justice in Portugal and around the world)

18. Criminalization processing (II) • Economic waves: state interest on recruiting cheap labour force and corruption syndrome on the control of legislative and judicial executive tasks; • Administrative waves: institutional preparation to receive immigrants in Portugal • Incarceration waves:

19. Criminalization processing (III)

20. The End

21. Social integration problems • Welfare State is weak in Portugal (it has been established after democratic revolution 1974). • Inequality index is the biggest in Europe –very sharp difference between Lisbon region, political centre and more European like way of life, and the rest of the country, specially the countryside.

22. Social integration problems (II) • Portuguese development dependent on infrastructures State investment programs. • Extensive use of precarious foreigner men workers on building and tourism industries. Women at home and cleaning industrial services – strong appeal to immigrant workers.

23. Social integration problems (III) • Housing problems because renting market is very short and selling market is closed to foreigners. • Social housing has been a problem by lake of places available for every needed family, since recently. • Social housing begins to be, overall, a problem for conviviality inside excluded neighbourhoods and through metropolitan areas.

24. Social integration problems (IV) • In the 90´s Portugal lived without unemployment problems. Since than the situation changed. • Education and training the worse handicap of Portuguese society (as well as justice system inefficiency).