On this page I will discuss who are the migrants to Thetford, where are they from, why are they here, and how many are here.

I rock these bare feet like no one else can
My hands are dirty I like 'em that way
Shows Who I am

I'm fresh off the boat
Fresh off the boat

Querida menina a beira do mar
Querida menina a beira do mar
Apanha um barco branco e vai vai vai
Apanha um barco branco e sai sai sai

Aquela menina a beira do mar
Aquela menina a beira do mar
Aquela menina a beira do mar
Querida menina e vai vai vai

Lyrics from Fresh off the Boat, Nelly Furtado daughter of Portuguese migrants, 2003.

The recent Profile of Migrant Workers in the Breckland Area (commissioned by local agencies), emphasised that the recent immigration to the area has become polarised into two main groups - the Portuguese, and the East Europeans from the new EU member-states.

Who are the Portuguese-speakers?

Not surprisingly, the majority are working class and originate from Portugal. Not just from one area of Portugal, but literally from every corner - from the far North of Trás-os-Montes, down to the far south of the Algarve. A significant number of the Portuguese migrants originate from the Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Oporto and their surrounds. The Portuguese are not new to economic migration. For example, between 1950, and 1988, over two million people emigrated from Portugal to France and Germany. The Portuguese have been locked into a number of migratory cycles for decades. Portuguese emigré communities exist in Germany, France, Canada, South Africa, Luxembourg, USA, the British Channel Isles, Brazil, and Switzerland. It is not unusual to find Portuguese migrants in the Thetford area, who have previously worked and lived in another of these migrant communities.

In 1975, a revolutionary Portuguese government, granted independence to most of their former colonies, including Mozambique, Angola, and East Timor. Almost a half million people fled those colonies in a hurry, and many ended up at Lisbon. It is not unusual to find that some Portuguese migrants in the Thetford area, started out their lives in those colonies. Additionally, many migrants from Africa, Brazil, and from Eastern Europe, have settled in the Lisbon area. Some Portuguese and Portuguese-speaking migrants come from those communities. Cape Verde - a group of islands in the Atlantic Ocean, is the home of one such significant community in Lisbon. Cape Verde has suffered severe droughts in recent years, forcing migration.

A number of the Portuguese-speaking migrants are Brazilians. Some of the Brazilians are here legally, having married Portuguese or other EU citizens, but some are working here with either fake papers, or with the wrong visas. As someone said, it's not so much that they don't have papers, so much as they don't have the right ones. For example, on 9th December 2004 the EDP (Eastern Daily Press) reported that eight Brazilians using fake Portuguese papers, were deported. I would stress that I believe that the great majority of Portuguese-speakers are legal migrants from Portugal, and have the same right to move here and to work here, as for example, the British have to emigrate to the Algarve or elsewhere in the European Union. However, to deny the existence of the 'other' Portuguese-speakers, some of whom are working here illegally, would be to not tell the whole story.

Who are the non-Portuguese speakers?

The Lithuanians and Poles

Smaller numbers of other migrants have also settled or passed through the Thetford area since 1997. These included Chinese, Eastern European, Southern African, and Asian workers. However, a significant development to the story occured in May 2004, when workers from the new EU-10 nation-states were permitted to work in the UK under the new Migrant Worker Registration Scheme. Since then, larger numbers of East European migrants from Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, and Latvia have been arriving. So far, these latest arrivals have not been bringing their families. The emphasis has been on earning money, and then returning home, which might suggest that they are not as likely to settle in the Thetford long term. However, time will tell - maybe I will launch a website named Lithuanian Thetford one day in the future!

Thetford does have an earlier Polish connection! Some Polish families had previously settled in the town - both forestry workers from between the world wars, and Free Polish servicemen and refugees from WW II. Following many years of links that extended from these early Polish settlers, Thetford recently formalised a town twinning agreement with Skawina in Poland.

The arrival of the EU-10 workers has probably put pressure on the Portuguese workers that were already here. Suddenly they are in competition for jobs with the East Europeans. Some Portuguese claim that the Labour Agencies are discriminating in favour of the East Europeans. However, part of this suspicion may be based on events in Portugal. East Europeans - especially Ukrainians and Russians have migrated to Portugal, where in an interesting twist, some Portuguese blame them for forcing down wages there. In turn, migrant workers from the Ukraine and elsewhere to Portugal, claim that Portuguese employment and immigration laws treat them like slaves.

Why Thetford?

Thetford is not alone in facing these migration waves. Previous to the present wave, there were already significant Portuguese communities in both London, and in the British Channel Isles. The present wave of migration, that started around 1997, is taking migrant workers to all parts of the UK, but particularly to rural Eastern and Southern England, and also, to Northern Ireland. The counties of Norfolk, Suffolk, Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, are home to many of the type of employers that are attracting the migrant workers. Wherever there is a need for their labour - usually in agriculture and the food industry, pockets of Portuguese-speakers and other migrants can now be found - Chard in Somerset for example. Migrant workers are being attracted by jobs in those areas, and by the strong British Pound. Most of the jobs are hosted by man-power agencies, that contract labour to the food industries, and agriculture. Where the migrant workers are most concentrated, they form distinct communities within the local towns that are capable of providing housing, shopping, and services for the migrants. Those towns where the new-wave migrants are establishing distinct communities include Thetford, East Dereham, and Great Yarmouth, Swaffham, and Watton in Norfolk; and nearby at Peterborough and Boston. Great Yarmouth has more Portuguese owned cafés and businesses than Thetford.

The British economy has been growing since 1997. In order to supply British and EU supermarkets with fresh produce on demand, the food industry needs a large, available, and mobile workforce. However, as the labour market tightened (as a result of improving economic performance and the fall in birthrate), employers had to consider how to react. Membership of the EU, and the opening up of the UK to the EU free labour market, has enabled employers to easily attract migrant labour from other EU member states. Many of the employers have recruited migrant labour through the contract-labour agencies. Bad employment practices of some of these agencies have earned them the name Gang masters, which I will discuss further in the website. Better employers recruit directly, even from Lisbon itself.

How Many?

Figures have so far been plucked out of the air. Figures so far estimated for the number of migrants living in Thetford (or Thetford Area?) vary from 2,000 to 7,000. Then it's not clear if these figures include non-Portuguese speakers. For Breckland district, I have seen an estimate of 15,000 Portuguese speakers. For Norfolk, it has been suggested that there may be as much as 20,000, and for East Anglia, a figure of 50,000 Portuguese-speakers has been suggested.

Since 2004, Thetford has seen a second wave of immigration, this time from the new EU member states of Poland, Lithuania, Slovakia, etc. This new wave certainly seems to be almost as significant in number as the Portuguese migration. Indeed, UK Government figures released in November 2006, revealed that East Anglia had recieved more migrant workers from the 2004 new EU member states than any other part of the UK - even more than London, with 73,000 Eastern European migrants registering under the new scheme in East Anglia. Thetford, laying at the centre of that region is experiencing that wave.

The reality is, no-one really knows. Whatever the figure, this is a phenomenal migration. It may not sound that phenomenal to someone living in a multicultural city - but this is East Anglia, an area of sparse population, that has seen very little immigration for centuries. No doubt as a result of these immigations from both Portugal and Eastern Europe, Thetford was recently awarded special Growth Point Status in 2006, and is expected to be one of the fastest growing areas in the East of England in the period running up to 2021. So what have been the problems if any? How is the host population coping, has there been conflict? Follow the links to find out.