Os discursos sobre a emigração portuguesa no pós-Segunda Guerra Mundial: a Junta da Emigração entre o proibicionismo e o avanço liberal (1947-1961)

By the end of the Second World War, Portuguese emigration increased. Antonio de Oliveira Salazar´s dictatorial regime anticipated the 1951´s emigratory boom and created, in 1947, the Junta da Emigração (JE): a centralizing department that replaced the former emigration system. The main aim of the JE was to regulate the emigratory flow, in accordance with the economical interests of the country, and to protect the emigrants. However, the new emigration policy was at odds with the demoliberal values, that won the Second World War, and according to which emigration was a human right. Thus, in an international conjuncture unfavorable to authoritarian regimes, the discourses created by the JE meant to legitimize a regulatory and centralizing emigration policy in line with a liberal discourse. As the internal contradictions of the Regime acuminated – due to the industrialization process – the rural elite increasingly criticized a policy that was considered too permissive. Obliged to deal with internal and external demands, the JE´s President tried to achieve an intricate balance within his enunciations. By analyzing the JE´s discourses about emigration, this paper intends to understand what discourses were possible within the institution. In doing so, some inner contradictions of the post-War Regime are revealed.