“Adapting to a new country is easy  because diversity is ingrained into my life”

I am Portuguese and I’ve been living in Madrid, Spain, for over a year. I’ve always had a curiosity about living abroad, learning a new language, embracing another culture and living their way of life. My village in Portugal has a lot of emigrants and when I was a child I was very interested to know the reasons why people migrated and risked their future in another nation. Maybe for that reason, I moved out and looked for better opportunities in a new country.

What I most like from my home town, even being so little, is that there is a mixture of different cultures, different people with interesting and amazing experiences and stories, and I can also find that same diversity in a big capital city such as Madrid. Maybe that’s why I feel like I’ve totally adapted to and embraced the Spanish culture.

When we leave our country, we miss our culture, our way of living, our home and so much more. But in some cases being far away from our nation also makes us feel very proud of where we come from, as I feel being a Portuguese girl living in Madrid.

In comparison to older generations, I think young people are able to accept cultural diversity better and have a more tolerant approach. Diversity is a part of young people’s lives because every day we meet different people in different scenarios, such as work, school, social events and I think that’s an increasing trend, thanks to globalization.

Our parents were raised with a different educational/cultural environment and therefore many times they do not share our view of the world. That’s when we realise that values such as tradition, culture and historic background are still very well grounded in our society.

Rosana Lagoncha; aged 23; Portugal