English 280: The Journalistic Essay

By Hernidia Tavares

Eight o’clock in the morning and Luis Lima arrives at his office in a school in Brockton where he has been working for his last four years as a teacher.  These past few years he has been thinking a lot on his homeland Cape Verde. Winter is the hardest time for him. “I hate the cold,” he says running to his black Mercedes bought two months ago “I can’t avoid thinking on CV every time I feel this chilling weather!” As we get in the car he starts the engine and turns on the heater. He is giving me a ride to my apartment when he decides to talk about his life, something that strangely he tries to avoid. “I came here to study… and now I’m living here.”
Many come with this idea, though as they got here “it seems that they pass through a brain drain process and forget all their goals… they just don’t study or if they do, they don’t go back to CV!” says Lenny Cabral, a descendent of Cape Verdean immigrant whale fishers. The last possibility happened to Luis who left his country when he was eighteen years old and came to the United States of America where he would late have his degree at the English Language. The reason why he didn’t go back only he knows.
It has been like this with a great number of Cape Verdean youths who leave the country to study abroad, especially to those who come to study in the United States of America. They leave Cape Verde with the main reason of studying for a higher education. After finishing their studies, circumstances trap them and they just can’t go back.

Cape Verde has a long tradition of immigration and the majority of its population is in Diaspora. According to the most recent census (in 2000) the population in the Cape Verdean national territory was 434,625 and projections suggest that it would have risen to 475,947 in 2005. The size of the Diaspora is estimated at 500,000, including 265,000 in the USA, 80,000 in Portugal, 45,000 in Angola, 25,000 in Senegal, 25,000 in France, and 5,000 in Argentina. Historians say that the first immigrants were fishermen and their destination was North America for whale fishing in the early 1800’s.
Long ago the whale fishing period has gone and now, a great number of youths leave the country with the focus on education. “Education is the most rational way through which we can help developing our country,” says the Prime Minister of Cape Verde Jose Maria Neves. However, this argument doesn’t seem attractive for youths who have just finished their education. They just want a good job through which they can provide good health care, house, commodity, wealth, in sum a safe life to their family in the future. Cape Verde doesn’t seem to be in conditions of affording it to its youths.

Before studying Luis worked for some years in order to save some income for his education. “I did all the kinds of decent jobs that one can imagine… I even worked as assistant at hospitals.”  After finishing his studies, he grabbed the first opportunity that he was given to work as a school teacher in Brockton, because, as he said, “I know that the money that one can make here it can’t be made in CV even if you have a higher position comparing to the position one have here.”
The majority of the students who manage to graduate are offered good conditions of work that many times hold them in the USA for the rest of their life. As Lenny Cabral, a story teller argues, the United States has a strong power and attractive condition to absorb anything and anyone who can be useful for this country. Admar, a Cape Verdean student at Bridgewater State College, adds that the employers offer conditions that it is difficult to refuse when you come from a country as Cape Verde where you are more likely to become unemployed even if you have a degree.

Maria Cardoso, one of few that didn’t went through the “Brian Drain Process” as L. Cabral calls it, shares the same opinion. “When I had my graduation in 2002 I could have stayed in USA if I wanted. The temptations were huge, but my main goal was to go back and be a useful Cape Verdean citizen working there, in the ground,” she says.

Youths quickly get used to the standard American life style and what happened is that “when they are confronted with the idea of going back they want to transport this life style to Cape Verde. Then, they just can’t do it because the life style people have here doesn’t fit to the way people live in CV” says Vanessa a descendent of Cape Verdeans who always lived in the USA and sometimes spends holidays in Cape Verde.

Others argue that people get used to the USA where one can have any imaginable thing and that what frighten them is the idea of living in Cape Verde where the problems are huge comparing to USA. Luis says that living in the United States is very different because you can always have work and you can have anything you dream with and moreover “who can guarantee me that I will have a job where I’m paid the same salary that I can make here?”  For instance, a youth who have bachelor degree in Cape Verde can make in average $500 per month, while in USA, youth with the same qualification makes this same amount in a week.

Maria has a different argument. As she says “it doesn’t matter how much you win here because the more you win the more tax you pay.” She came back to the USA for her Master degree program. Back home she was a teacher and she says  she doesn’t mind making less money in CV because taxes are lower than in USA and because she knows that she can always save some free time for her family and friends “I have a good social life,” she says, an aspect of living that Luis is longing for.

Luis says he miss badly the good moments he used to spend with his friends every afternoon and sometimes he can’t avoid the idea of going back but, “Things are harder than they seem to be! Possibilities of finding a good work that can provide all the things I need to live well are limited and master people are a lot.”

Another thing that can also prevent youths from going back to their country is the poor capacity of the country to meet their needs as professionals. “A recent mastered doctor wants to work in his/her field with all the necessary equipments to better apply his/her knowledge and serve his patients” says Tony. However, he adds, what happen is that when these doctors go back sometimes the conditions that CV can provide are poor and they feel obliged to go back in time and “forget the most advanced technologic techniques they were taught.”  As Tony says, this can contribute a lot to the decision of the youths in staying in USA where they can always renew their methodologies, techniques and everything they have learned, as the facilities are more than in CV.

Emotional aspect that can also prevents youths from going back. According to Daniel Santos, a graduated student in the Communication field their work is more valorized in abroad than back home. As he wrote on his email to me, “every time I announced in the newspaper that I was going to give a speech in Portugal, the room would be crowded, but here, in my own country I have to beg for people’s participation” and he adds “it is very sad! I want to give my contribution to my country, but people doesn’t seem to value my work”

Many people argue that what most frighten those youths are the huge possibilities of becoming unemployed back home. The kind of work that those youths are more likely to have is teaching and by doing this they would feel forced to forget the area they specialized in.  However, according to the Prime Minister Neves who was in a conference with Cape Verdean students in Massasoit, one must not fear the unemployment but fight against it.

According to the Prime Minister, the government cannot employ all the students after finishing their education, though “the country still needs them!” He continues his speech remembering that CV is growing so fast and a lot of areas needs investors. He exemplifies pointing out careers in the area of business and management, administration and tourism that on his point of view can generate a lot of new jobs, which consequently would decrease the rate of unemployment “Youths need to interiorize the idea of going back and start businesses of their own where they can provide jobs for dozens more of youths. “This is the idea that I want youths to go back with!… ‘What kind of business can I invest on so that I can offer a job to more ten youths?’”

Some say that this idea of going back depends very much on the goals of each individual person and also on the situation of life they have in the United States, comparing to the life they had back in CV. Maria remembers that when she first came to the USA she told her mother that she wanted to finish her studies as soon as possible because, as she says, “my country needs me… and I can’t stand the idea of living in the USA for all my life.”

After graduating she went to Cape when she worked as a teacher for five years. She has two children, a huge house, a sophisticated sports car and what can be considered a “good life” within the pattern of life in CV. The only reason she came back according to her, is for her Master degree which, has always been one of her dreams.

She brought her two children and her mother to help her with them, but still she complains for making “this sacrifice” as she said because “I feel sorry for my kids; they don’t have the liberty they had back home.”

They live in the second floor of a building of three floors and as she says their neighbors are always complaining about the kids’ noise. She told me that her son is becoming nervous because he can’t play at home the way he used to do in CV and this “breaks my heart.” Maria strongly refuses to change her goals and she doesn’t allow herself to go through the Drain Brain. “I can’t see the moment I finish so that I can take my kids back to our country. Going back for me is a question of love… and I love my country,” she says.

Luis has a very contradictory opinion.  In one of our several meetings he took me to the place he calls his world, because as he told me, he wanted to show me what grabs him here. “I do love my CV; it is my country! Damn if I didn’t! But I can’t imagine myself living without the routine I have here.” Everyday before going to work he goes to the Dunkin Donuts, where from his car, he orders hot chocolate. On the weekends he has always something to do. Central Park, Boston Aquarium, museums, restaurants, theatre and zoo are some of his preferences. “My decision of living in the United States it is not only because of money and not all about money” he tells me as he drives us to a theater in Boston “it is also about love and identity. I love living here and I found myself in this country!”