The viewpoint of the Cape Verdean Community in Lisbon regarding health and illness

Abstract

This article is based on a study focusing on sociology in health with a particular focus on the health of immigrants in relation to their representations and practices of health and illness. This article was intended to establish a comparative analysis of the data. The study aims to understand how individuals perceive health, both in general and in their particular cases. A comparative analysis was conducted to highlight the similarities and differences in representations of health or illness. The study was conducted with a sample of 40 first generation Cape Verdean residents in the Lisbon area, who were divided into three subgroups by social group, generation, and gender. We chose a qualitative methodology and used semi-structured interviews to collect information. The results suggest that there are differences between social groups relative to their representations of health and illness. The differences were determined more by socioeconomic factors than by cultural aspects or ethnicity. We found that socio-economic status, more than culture or ethnicity, determines the major differences in perspectives and affects health practices and illnesses when examining a group with the same cultural origins. In general, individuals overestimated their common ethnic identity and cultural origin. These differences have been exemplified in two points of view: cosmopolitan, which is more sophisticated regarding the world and ideas expressed by the elite group; and existential, which is more closely linked to the material conditions of existence and corresponding to the representations made by the popular group. Because they belong to different social groups, people with the same cultural origin and ethnic identity have a shared sense of cultural belonging but not identical behavior and practices.