PORTUGALITY in Andorra

PRINCIPAT D'ANDORRA

The place and the community

Andorra, officially Principality of Andorra (in catalan: Principat d’Andorra), and also sometimes Principality of the Valleys of Andorra (in catalan: Principat de les Valls d'Andorra) is a small European country located in the Pyrenees’ range tucked between northeast Spain and southwest France. For long, an isolated nation, it is today a prosperous country mainly because of tourism and its status of fiscal paradise. Presently, Andorran population is listed as having one of the world’s highest life expectancies, at an average of 82.5 years. The principality is the only country in the world whose official language is Catalan, even though it represents only 0.22% of all Catalan-speakers in Europe. In its territory, Spanish (Castilian), Portuguese and French, by this order of importance, are also spoken! (CIA World Factbook, 2012)

The Portuguese living in the Principality of Andorra number more than 11 000, accounting for about 15% of total population and making up the country’s 3^rd most important community, after Andorrans and Spanish (Observatório da Emigração, 2012). In the last decade, the Andorran-Portuguese community nearly tripled, there being a large number of Portuguese whose residence in the country dates from less than 5 years. Made up mostly of workers who stay in the country for a short number of years or even months, the Portuguese community accounts for a great share of the country’s youth: 15% are aged less than 15 years old, 29.1% between 16 and 30, 47% between 31 and 50 and a mere 8.7% are over 50 years old. If you consider second-generation Portuguese born in Andorra, the community would number over 16 000, almost 20% of the population (Filipe Luís, Visão 2009), the largest ration of Portuguese community to whole population of any country with a Portuguese community in the world. Most of the Portuguese there are originary from the northern Portuguese regions of Minho and Trás-os-Montes and work mainly for the building sector, hotels and restaurants. There are in Andorra 340 Portuguese-owned companies offering employment to over 2 000 workers. The two main community organizations are Associação de Residentes Portugueses no Principado de Andorra – Casa de Portugal and Associação Cultural dos Residentes do Alto Minho. (Presidência da República Portuguesa, 2010)

Andorran politics and economics thus owe a lot to the Portuguese community which provide more and more for the public service and administration of the Principality, a contribution often recognized by the Andorran government whose officials always grace the community’s festivals and celebrations and promotes bilateral business missions between Portugal and Andorra. (Paulo Pisco, iOnline 2011)

Litterature and references

Ø Carvalho, José Luis (2007), Portugueses em Andorra. Uma visão global, Principado de Andorra, Andbanc.

Ø Comas, Dolors d'Argemir, e Joan J. Pujadas (1999), "Living in/on frontier: migration, identities and citizenship in Andorra", Social Anthropology, 7(3), pp. 253-264.

Ø Malheiros, Jorge (2002), "Espanha e Andorra (estudo de caso)", em Maria Ioannis Baganha, João Ferrão, e Jorge Malheiros (orgs.), Os Movimentos Migratórios Portugueses e a sua Incidência no Mercado de Trabalho em Portugal, Lisboa, Observatório do Emprego e Formação Profissional, pp. 225-255.

Ø Matias, Magda (2008), A que sabe um Sumol a 2.200 metros de altitude? , Lleida, Pagès Editora.