Goans, both who are already in the UK and those who are preparing to leave Goa for Britain before
Britain leaves Europe, are bracing up for Brexit in many myriad ways. But one
thing is for certain. Goexit* has certainly increased, *(i.e. Goans exiting Goa
to reach the shores of UK) before uncertainty becomes permanent over Britain’s
future.
In the villages of Goa, Brexit and Goexit are both being awaited
and prepared for in many ways
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Early visits to meet ailing parents
40-year old Jude D’Silva, was in Goa for Christmas but made sure
he visited his ailing parents in Goa mid-March only because he’s not certain if
the borders will seal post Brexit.
“My parents are ailing, and I make an annual trip to Goa to
visit them. I have migrated with my wife and kids on my Portuguese passport and
live in Hounslow but we fear that as and when Brexit happens and the borders
maybe sealed and there may be issues with the settled and non-settled EU
citizens in UK and may not get enough time to buy tickets at a good deal and
exit UK, hence we decided to come ahead of schedule and visit our parents and
relatives,” stated Jude. Similar to Jude, Goans in the UK usually time their
Goa visits with weddings of loved one’s, death anniversary of family members,
sometimes visits are times with church feasts, school summer vacations in the
UK post June or just about with Christmas or Easter, though ticket prices soar
during Christmas.
Brexit not yet sealed but Goan sorpotel
surely is
“In the UK, only packed foods are allowed and hence when Goans
take their local delights like mango pickle, sorpotel, Goan vinegar, coconut
oil, feni or be it prawn molho, vindalho and reachado masala, they need to seal
it properly. There a many sealing enterprises in Chinchinim, Majorda, Colva,
Betalbatim and the rush at these units has increased with unseasonal travel of
Goans going to UK during February and March,” explains to us Terezinha Torcato
who takes a lot of orders for pickles and preserves from Goans travelling to UK,
the Gulf or those going on board the ship.
She explains to us how most of her customers going to work on
the ship and gulf have dwindled in the last five years and most of these people
have moved to the UK and now their orders have doubled since they all moved to
the UK with their families.
“So it’s not only that my customers I met in November and
December, have come back to for pickle and masala orders and the sealing units
are also booming with business but a large number of Goans who were holding on
to their Portuguese passport or have completed their registration process in
Portugal have fled before Brexit and hence, my orders have increased,” stated
Terezinha.
“Goans have always been migrating for employment since this land
has little to offer to people be it Goans then going to British India and
working in Mumbai or South India and then later to Karachi, Cabo Verde, later
the Gulf region with the oil and gas boom and now obviously UK because of their
Portuguese passports,’ explains Raphael Viegas, Curtorim’s well known
historian.
Similar to Terezinha’s booming business, is the D’Silva’s family
of Betalbatim who make fried fish pickles, salted tongue, pork sorpotel, guava
cheese, pork sausage, fish preserves and seal oil and vinegar with professional
packing and lamination of their products. The D’Silva’s have even a courier
service to deliver packed food to Goans in UK, Italy and France.
“With increasing Goans in London, Goan food delights are
actually a business venture there and nowadays Goans travelling to the UK, not
just take packed and sealed Goan cuisine for self-consumption but to sell.
These sales happen at Church after Sunday mass at Hounslow, parts of Croydon
and Birmingham. Sometimes the tube stations of the London underground have
fliers of Goan masalas and that’s now a business venture, explains Anita who we
meet at D’Silva’s Food Packing. She’s taking 10 kgs of sorpotel in packs of 500
grams to resell to friends and family in the UK.
Tuition dropouts as class kids leave for
UK
While Amelia Dias, who is well known for her mathematics
tuitions in Nuvem, comes up with a surprising statistics that shocks us. “I
usually give tuitions for class 09 and 10 and expect a child to stay enrolled
with me for both the years, so that I can help them in their preparation to
class 09. Shockingly 9 students have confirmed that they will not be continuing
for tuitions next year as they have all migrated with their parents to UK ahead
of the Brexit deadline.”
School drop outs too…
Similarly there is a school in Salcete which confirms that they
have lost almost twelve of their students to migration into UK, which is a
trend in most government aided schools in Salcete
School bus operators been hit by Goexit
“Earlier mostly residents of Salcete lived across the 30
villages which are up to 18 kms away from Margao city and their children
studied in schools in Margao. With the fathers in Gulf or on the ship and with
bad bus connectivity, there was a boom for private school buses and vans and
hence, I invested in four such buses and two Innova’s and was doing good
business picking and dropping students from Colva, Benaulim, Carmona, Varca,
Mobor, Navelim, Velim, Raia, Curtorim, Macazana and even from Quepem, to Margao
and back home but I have a lost a large number of my clientele to UK migration
ahead of Brexit.
I never lost so much business even when the government started
Bal Rath’s or with the new trend of increasing women drivers wherein the
children are dropped by the mother’s but since 2017 after Brexit became a
reality, I kept losing business and the homes where I picked children are
either closed down or have old grandparents living all alone which the next
generation having fled to the UK,’ stated Amresh Dessai from Colva. Amresh who
ran into loses in his taxi business with dwindling tourist had shifted to
dropping school children but he says, that too has low numbers.
Mobile morgues at home as families wait
for members from UK to attend funerals
While Amresh shares his plight with us at a tea stall near Maria
Hall, Benaulim, his friend Jovi Fernandes, shows us the Herald, the obituary
section wherein it’s a trend for Goans to advertise the death of their loved
ones and announce the funeral rites date and venue.
Jovi explains, “Since names are very common in Goa, one way to
distinguish people is by their names of the relatives and where they’re place
or working. He points out how earlier the obituary advertisements had Goans
working within Goa or in other parts of India but he shows six different
advertisements where it’s the death of senior citizen and their three siblings
and equal number of grandchildren are all shown as in UK. You see which means
almost nine to eleven members of each family are in the UK, which delays the
funeral and hence this trend of a mobile morgue at homes.’
Jovi, Raphael, Terezinha, the D’Silva’s, Amelia and many others
in Salcete only discuss closed, homes, family members and neighbors in UK,
deserted neighborhood’s and a bigger Goan community of their village in UK than
in Goa.
Packed shows of Konkani movies in UK; Goan
tiatrists are a hit too on UK stages
“We recently went to UK and screened our Konkani movie Nirmon
which is an adaptation of the same Konkani classic. And with increasing Goans
over there, and Goan associations, it’s the love of Konkani and the nostalgia
for their homeland and hence Goans there collect funds, sell tickets to Goans
door to door and organize these shows. We had two screenings of our film in UK
and later in Australia and Canada,” explains Goan filmmaker Nilesh Nevalkar.
Similarly, Goan tiatrists have also migrated to UK and have been regularly
producing stage acts and videos from there.
There’s definitely a movement though one cannot quantify it. I
think when article 50 was moved to withdraw from the EU, people feared and
existing passport holders rushed and migrated then the numbers slowed down
since Brexit has been in a deadlock but more and more people want to have their
registrations and Portuguese passport with them ready to leave if an
opportunity props up. Now that the article 50 is in abeyance, Goans will look
at this new window to leave depending on opportunities, explains noted lawyer
and owner of Gomindes & Co, Zezito Gomindes, who’s renowned for helping
people complete their Portuguese Passport formalities. .
But
as Café travelled across Salcette, the buzz of people on the move, waiting to
pack and bags and leave Goa, was very prevalent. And they are making sure that
their pickles, sausages and sorpotels travel with them, signed and sealed. At
least these things are certain even though the Brexit deal isn’t.
