Illegal Emigration from the Eastern Algarve to Morocco during the Estado Novo

Abstract

This text analyses illegal emigration originating in the Algarve, during the Estado Novo (New State), in order to clarify: what relationship existed between this illegal migratory flow and other contemporary emigratory systems? Who were the illegal emigrants activating this system? What circumstances and motives explained these emigrants’ option? Analysis was made of data obtained in a documental corpus of 43 court cases dealt with at the courts of east south Portugal, for facts related to illegal emigration, in which 178 people were accused. In Estado Novo, there was increased control of illegal emigration by the border police of the corporatist regime, but the illegal emigrants filled the shortage of labour principally in Morocco and integrated the Portuguese-Spanish-Moroccan migratory system, which persisted alongside the transatlantic system. The restrictions introduced by the new Kingdom of Morocco and the emergence of the European migratory system contributed to transforming the «Moroccan» in the «Frenchman».