The first period of Macanese diaspora took place between the mid-nineteenth and mid-twentieth century. Macao was the main source city of Macanese emigrants whose major destinations were Hong Kong and Shanghai.

The movement of Shanghai Portuguese Refugees to Macao from 1949 represented the beginning of new migratory flows that led Macanese emigrants to the five continents.
 

Between 1880 and 1952 more than 5000 Portuguese nationals were registered at the Portuguese Consulate in Shanghai (List on the left). After the end of World War II, more and more Macanese in Shanghai began to leave the city. The outflow of Macanese, which generally bound for Macao, accelerated from 1949 and eventually resulted in the disappearance of the Macanese community in Shanghai in a few years.

The Macanese in Shanghai were mainly engaged in commercial and financial activities (List on the right).

The migration of Shanghai Portuguese refugees made an important contribution to the dispersal of Macanese around the world during the second half of the twentieth century: Only 4.2% of the Macanese migrants converged in Asia, followed by Africa, with merely 0.4%. The countries with the highest number of Macanese migrants were located in the American continent (58.6%); followed by Europe with a big margin (22.4%) and then Oceania (14.4%).

In May 1949, the migratory movement of Shanghai Portuguese refugees began and lasted for many months and years afterwards. Between May and October 1949, 121 Macanese were registered. In May 1950, registration was recommenced and more than 86 Macanese were registered. In 1951, the number of registration jumped to 180, amounting to 46.6% of total registrations in three years.

Most of the Portuguese refugees were children of immigrants born in Shanghai or Hong Kong. It was very likely that most of them had never been to Macao. Indeed, only just over 10% of them were born in this territory.

Between 1949 and 1951, more than 94% of refugees were accommodated in three places: Centre of Refugees for both male and female refugees; Centre of Avenida Almirante Lacerda almost exclusively for female refugees; and the Home of the Poor where only male refugees were accommodated.

Subsequently, most refugees, who were offered basic conditions for their survival in the territory, including accommodation, food, hygiene and healthcare, were housed in three centres:

• Centre No. 1 – Home of the Poor (Canidrome)
• Centre No. 2 – Portuguese-Chinese (Calçada do Gamboa)
• Centre No. 3 – Rua Nova do Comércio

Maria Teresa Véstia, daughter of Clementina Maria Assunta Fernandes, is a keeper of her mother’s memories. The small number of documents (passports, letters, photographs, certificates...) preserved with affection are a recollection of a life divided among Shanghai, Macao, Mozambique and Lisbon.

Clementina Fernandes spent the first twenty years of her life in Shanghai. She was educated both about the preservation of her Macanese identity and the need to adapt to the multicultural society of foreign concessions. It was an education that emphasized on the values of tolerance and respect for the principles that shape the character of each individual.

Clementina had met many friends throughout her life, some since her early youth. Her friendships are reflected in the small autograph books that she left, in which there are signatures of Russian, American and Chinese youngsters.

The young Clementina Fernandes, who was of short stature at slightly more than one and a half metre and with swarthy skin, brown eyes and black hair as described in the passport, began to prepare for her departure from Shanghai in May 1949

The trip to Macao and to Portugal some years later represented a double migration in space and time. It was both a relocation to other territories for “refuge” and a trip to territories where the historical-cultural origins of Macanese community could be traced.

Clementina bought an autograph book, which then accompanied her throughout the six years that she spent in Macao. The first page of the book writes the address of her first residence in Macao – No. 18, Calçada da Barra. However, there is also evidence that she might have stayed in a refugee centre for some time.

Little is known of the life of Clementina Fernandes in Macao. Maria Teresa Véstia reminisced that her mother had lived in one of the refugee centres for about a month, where she shared the same sorrows, joys, misfortunes and solidarity with her fellow compatriots during those difficult days.

Those were the times of transition which enabled this young lady to make friends and live in available spaces in Macao, a city that remained open to the world, despite all the difficulties in the years of war and refuge.

In 1956, Clementina Fernandes was married to José António Pereira, a Portuguese soldier born in Vila Pouca de Aguiar in Portugal on 8 November 1928. Their first two children, Guilhermina and José António, were born in Macao.