BROCKTON — Brockton, the U.S. city with the highest population of Cape Verdeans, has two new sister cities in the island nation.
The agreements formalize Brockton’s close ties with Mosteiros and São Filipe. Both sister cities are on Fogo, one of Cape Verde’s 10 inhabited islands.
The sister-city relationships are one tangible outcome from a December visit to the archipelago off the west coast of Africa by delegations from Southeastern Massachusetts.
“Brockton, Massachusetts is on everybody’s radar over there,” said Mayor Robert Sullivan, who noted that there’s a “City of Brockton” street in the capital, fruit of a previous visit by Mayor Bill Carpenter.
The delegations met with Cape Verde’s president, Jose Maria Neves, plus two former presidents, five mayors and several cabinet-level officials, among other Cape Verdeans. They also met with the U.S. ambassador to Cape Verde, Jeff Daigle.
A Brockton office of immigration services?
Sullivan said plans are underway for new health care links with the islands involving not just Brockton but also Boston and New Bedford, the three cities in the commonwealth with the highest population of Cape Verdeans. He said he spoke with Boston Mayor Michelle Wu about the subject at her inauguration and also with New Bedford Mayor Jon Mitchell. The cities would ship health instruments like walkers and canes to Cape Verde and also arrange for more telehealth options with Bay State hospitals.
“They have a huge deficit in healthcare over there,” Sullivan said.
Another effort is to put cultural and educational assimilation programs in place for Cape Verdean children and young adults preparing to immigrate to Brockton.
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“They’re hoping to be able to make sure that their relatives that are here, but more importantly those that are going to be coming here, really have the tools to understand what is needed [to succeed in the U.S.],” Sullivan said.
The mayor said he will be proposing to the City Council that Brockton create an office of immigration services similar to the one Boston has. If approved, the office would help not just Cape Verdeans, but any immigrants who come to Brockton or are considering the move.
The cost
City taxpayers paid $1,800 apiece for Sullivan, Chief of Staff Sydné Marrow and Chief Financial Officer Troy Clarkson. That figure includes flights and hotels during the eight-day visit. The only other public expenditure was $220 for dinner when the Brockton delegation hosted State Sen. Mike Brady (D-Brockton) and the Bridgewater State University delegation, city officials said.
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The sister-city agreement with São Filipe had been in the works under Carpenter, who died unexpectedly in office. Sullivan honored that agreement and added Mosteiros since so many Brocktonians come from that town.
Changing emigration patterns
Emigration plays an outsize role for Cape Verde. More Cape Verdeans live outside the home islands (about 700,000 people according to the United Nations) than on them (almost 600,000 by the CIA’s latest estimate).
Within the United States, no state comes close to Massachusetts for population of Cape Verdeans. Census estimates put the Bay State’s total at 70,962. Next is Rhode Island with 17,600. Among the other 48 states, only Connecticut has even 3,000 Cape Verdeans.
And there’s no single city in the country with more Cape Verdeans than Brockton, according to census estimates. The City of Champions is home to almost 20,000 Cape Verdeans.
As Cape Verde develops, however, emigration appears to be slowing. It’s a dynamic Marrow has been seeing anecdotally as Cape Verdeans leave home for education but return to the archipelago.
“My grandparents came here from Cape Verde,” Marrow said in a recent interview at City Hall. “Back then people came here from Cape Verde for a better way of life and they didn’t have a desire to go back because there was not much there for them to go back to. These students now are coming here, taking the education and going back to the country and that’s a huge difference.”
The delegation also met with former President Pedro Pires, now 86. Bridgewater State’s Institute for Cape Verdean Studies is named for Pires, who as a general helped lead the fight for independence from Portugal. “He’s sharp as a whip,” Marrow said.
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