This exploratory and qualitative study describes the author's personal experiences of emigration. A first part of the article focuses on the relationship between the individual rights and the State violence. Colonization, wars, and discrimination increases the Portuguese forced emigration flows. In the second part, this exploratory work applies the method of phenomenological reduction, and thus attempts to be descriptive, rather than normative and prescriptive. The focus is on ethnic identity and on the emigration experience, in comparative reflection to the main acculturation models. Labeling is often perceived as intrusive, and causes discord with the individual's self-categorization. The author, from Portugal, experiences social pressure for self-categorization in France, as well as in Portugal. The ordinary categorizing words "immigrant" and "emigrant" are labels. Each label carries attributes related to otherness, and low socioeconomic status. The personal experience is close to fusion acculturation.