Most people making the move to Portugal are coming from the north, primarily northern Europe, United States or Canada. And the majority are doing so for the weather. For lack of a better term, let’s refer to them then as “Northerners,” and those in the south, (Portugal, Spain and Italy for example), as ”Southerners”.
Cultural characteristics are what differentiate them with the concept of time, how each relates to it, at the top of the list.
This becomes most obvious when it’s time for dinner. Northerners tend to dine earlier while Southerners do so later. Southerners, such as the Portuguese, have dinner around 9PM. The Spanish, even later, between 9:30 and 10:30. The French, around 7:00 – 8:00. Swedes, Fins, Norwegians and Canadians dine as early as 5:30 while Americans tend to eat between 6:00 – 8:00. It makes it very easy for restauranteurs – the first sitting will be for the Northerners while the second sitting will be for the Southerners.
And what if they want to dine together? Well, someone is going to have to be accommodating. Unfortunately Northerners often find they are simply no longer hungry if asked to eat later – they they’ve passed their usual dining time. Southerners, meanwhile, haven’t had time to build up an appetite for an early dinner as they’ve just finished lunch!
Now add to this the tardiness of the Southerners and you can really have a dilemma. For even though dinner may be scheduled for 8PM, Southerners may arrive later as punctuality is also not what they’re know for. It’s just not deemed rude in the south. Meanwhile, the Northerners probably arrived well before 8PM, hoping dinner could commence sooner. Imagine their disappointment as 8PM rolls around and their guests still haven’t arrived.
While living in Mexico I would joke that if a meeting was scheduled between a Canadian, American and Mexican, the Canadian would arrive a few minutes early to ensure they would not be late. The American would show up right on time. And then sometime after the Mexican would appear. Who is correct here? Well, it mostly has to do with where the meeting is taking place (which country), so that would be the Mexican. The farther north you are the more important it is to be on time and not being on time is seen an irresponsible, bordering on rude. While in the south being on time holds less importance – it isn’t seen as irresponsible or rude. So, in Rome, do as the Romans do!
Northerners enjoy making detailed plans for the future and frown upon missing deadlines. They are more likely to stay at work late, or order food in so they can work through lunch, to ensure that a deadline is met. At meetings it’s business first and if there’s time for small talk it takes place at the end of the meeting. Work comes first, people and relationships come second.
In contrast for Southerners there is less emphasis on sticking to set schedules. They are more likely to be working on multiple projects at the same time. But certainly don’t ask them to work through lunch! Being late is not frowned upon. At meetings conversation about family and life in general commonly come first and then it’s down to business. People and relationships first, work second.
Northern cultures are ‘doing’-orientated, whereas southern cultures are ‘being’-orientated.
Schedules are looked upon very differently between Northerners and Southerners. Northerners see the schedule as way to ensure that a project will be completed at a specific time or date. They are deemed highly important, where time itself is treated as a commodity of high value, as necessary as or perhaps even more important than satisfaction, good work, and relationships. Southerners, on the other hand, just see it as a guide but completing it on the day or time scheduled doesn’t really matter so much. If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, well, then it will get done next month, but it’s no big deal. Except for the northerner, it is.
So when a Northerner decides to move to a southern country and have a house built, a project that will involve schedules and deadline dates, they are probably setting themselves up for a “concept of time” clash with a southern house builder. The Northerner will wonder where the lists are, the bullet points, the set schedules and deadlines. But quite probably, they won’t exist. Or they’ll exist at the beginning to satisfy the Northerner, but they won’t necessarily be followed or adhered to.
When you sign your agreement with the builder you’ll be happy to see there is a schedule, an outline of when different aspects of the house construction will begin and when it should be finished. But that may be the last time you see the schedule again, or that it’s followed. What was scheduled for month three may take place in month two or month four or five. If you question why if it was marked in the schedule for month two but not completed, you’ll get a shrug and told not to worry, it’ll all get done. So it becomes impossible to know if you are on schedule or not.
While we were building our house just south of Lisbon we had good friends building on Vancouver Island in Canada. It took a year to obtain our building permit. It took them three weeks. Our house was scheduled to be finished in 12 months, it took 16. Our friends were told it would take less than 12 months and it took less than 12 months. We were probably fortunate it was only four months late. We have friends in Lisbon who were promised their new apartment would be ready in January/2024. It’s April/2025 as I write this and they are hoping they’ll move in at the end of the month.
Cultures also vary by the way they view different eras in time. For example, countries with long documented histories that have survived wars, had past achievements, or long-lasting monarchies often hold on to the past more than countries with relatively shorter histories. They can be thought of as past-, present-, or future-oriented cultures.
Portugal is definitely more past-oriented, as is most of Europe. It hasn’t forgotten that it once ruled much of the world during the 15th century. I’ll write more of this later, but it really is deep within the psyche of every Portuguese. Past-oriented cultures lean towards tendencies that emphasize traditional values and ways of doing things. Management styles tend to be conservative and the pace of change or reform can be slow. These cultures value their history and believe that tradition is very important.
The most obvious example of a future-oriented culture is the United States that trends towards optimism for the future, often because they feel they can shape it. Planning is paramount as opposed to simply going with the flow.
All this considered, how one views time can make the moving transition challenging as it’s involved in most daily activities. This was felt by many when the Portuguese government fell behind in processing residency applications during Covid and never really recovered. There were people waiting literally years to obtain their papers. In the meantime they were in limbo with no documentation to say where they legally resided. This made travel outside of Portugal nearly impossible as the government was saying you shouldn’t travel until the paperwork is properly completed. Finally in 2025 they hired a private company to take over. The jury is still out whether they’ll be more successful or not.