Maria Lucinda Fonseca

Labour market integration of immigrants in Portugal in times of austerity: resilience, in situ responses and re-emigration

ABSTRACT The austerity regime implemented in Portugal to face the financial and economic crisis caused readjustments in the country’s productive structure and labour market with an impact on immigrants’ lifeworlds. This article aims at analysing the consequences of the crisis in the lives of third-country nationals living in Portugal, reflecting particularly on the impact on their integration process, understood as economic incorporation, in a context of increasing work precariousness. Special attention will be given to the resilience of immigrants visible in their responses to the labour market constraints, namely through their choices of geographic (im)mobility and also the implementation of strategies to ‘normalise’ their lives. Starting with a brief reference to the meaning of integration in Portugal in a context of crisis, we draw on data from two research projects, arguing that despite the increased hardship, the resilience of foreign workers is considerable and they still think it is worth coming to Portugal. The strategies adopted may be either in situ or implying onward migration, resulting from the combination of context opportunities and individual agency. Factors like legal status, education and having relatives abroad play a moderate role in this process.

The Economic Crisis as a Feedback-Generating Mechanism? Brazilian and Ukrainian Migration to Portugal

Migration researchers have demonstrated the central function that feedback plays in the perpetuation of migration flows between a specific origin and destination region (Massey et al., 1998; de Haas, 2010; Mabogunje, 1970). Feedback mechanisms are the changes in the constituting elements, for example organisations, strategies or flows of people, which are fed back into the migration system, regulating its functions (Bakewell, 2014). Thus, the system’s behaviour is modified by the information that is incorporated back by the actors, nurturing, or not, the continuation of the migration process due to its impact in the areas of both origin and reception (Mabogunje, 1970; Massey et al., 1998; Bilsborrow and Zlotnik, 1995). The literature has pointed to the central role of migrant networks in transmitting feedback. These are a form of social capital composed of “institutionalized relationships of mutual acquaintance and recognition or in other words, to membership in a group” (de Haas, 2010, p. 1589). As Massey et al. (1998) explain, the support provided by informal migrant networks for successive migrants decreases the costs of migration, easing the process of migrating and settling in the destination.

Moroccans in Portugal: The Role of Networks with the Home Country in Migration and Integration Processes

Moroccans are a recent and small migrant group in Portugal, yet they are significantly represented in the agricultural sector. Over 30% are concentrated in Algarve, the most southern region of the country with a more recent presence in Lisbon. Given their recent presence in Portugal, little is known about their process of integration or their migration experiences. This chapter has two main objectives. First, we provide a reading of the characteristics of Moroccan migrants in the Algarve and their integration. Second, we explore the role that network ties have in perpetuating migration to Portugal. In particular, we examine the role of current migrants in providing feedback and assistance to new/potential migrants considering migrating to Portugal. According to migration theory, migration increases over time as networks and social structures are established to sustain it (Massey et al. 1998). Such ties link migrants and non-migrants between origin and destination countries and may be helpful for organizing the process of migration and integration. To examine these processes, we draw on a survey conducted with 207 Moroccan migrants in the Algarve and 51 semi-structured interviews with Moroccan migrants and key informants conducted in the Algarve and Lisbon regions in the scope of the THEMIS (2011) and MEDCHANGe projects (2014/2015). Our findings identify important factors that have structured Moroccan migration including collective hiring schemes in agriculture and social networks. However, the effects of the economic and financial crisis seem to be resulting in stabilization or even decline of the migratory flow.

Ageing and Migration: Some Reflexions on the Effects of the Economic and Financial Crisis on Demographic Trends in Portuguese Regions

The ageing of the Portuguese population is a long-term trend that began years ago but has become more evident recently. The results from the 2011 Census show a country with an old age dependency ratio of 28.9, well above the EU27 average, an index of renewal of the active population close to 94.34, and a declining proportion of young people. The 2% population growth between 2001 and 2011 was possible due to the increase of foreign citizens in Portugal. According to Statistics Portugal, 82.4% of the foreign citizens are aged between 15 and 64 and only 5% are 65 or older. In 2010, 12.6% of all births were from foreign parents.

International Mobility of Brazilian Students to Portugal: The Role of the Brazilian Government and University Strategies in Portugal

Student mobility associated with processes of internationalisation in higher education has been consistently on the rise since the 1970s. However, so far, most research has focused on the periphery-core moves mostly targeting Anglophone countries. More recently, within the European Union, increasing attention is being paid to processes of intra-European student mobility (Erasmus Programmes and similar). Little is known about other systems of international student mobility, particularly involving the Lusophone world. Brazilian students have long sought Portugal for the pursuit of higher education. However, only in recent years did this flow experience an intense growth (of 109.1 % between 2008 and 2012). It is particularly striking that this growth is taking place within an overall framework of declining migration from Brazil to Portugal following the economic crisis and declining labour demand. Both the policies adopted by the Brazilian government to stimulate the international mobility of its students and strategies developed in Portuguese universities to attract Brazilian students have been fundamental in the constitution of this flow. This paper draws on data from multiple sources to examine the institutional framework that facilitates mobility, on the one hand, and the experiences of the students themselves, on the other (viz. in terms of academic reception, accommodation and life experience): (i) secondary statistical data, (ii) policy documents, (iii) interviews with representatives of Portuguese Universities (in Lisboa, Coimbra and Porto) and (iv) interviews with students.

Migration of Ukrainian Nationals to Portugal: The Visibility of a New Migration Landscape

Immigration from Ukraine to Portugal began at the end of the 1990s without any previous relevant relationship between the two countries. It was sudden, intense, took Portuguese society by surprise and attracted a lot of attention from the media, policy makers and academia. In 2014, Ukrainians constituted the third-largest group of foreign nationals registered in the country’s official statistics. The present chapter draws on secondary data and primary data collected through interviews and surveys to offer insights into the constitution of this migratory movement and the settlement patterns of Ukrainian migrants in Portugal. In addition, it provides recommendations for a future research agenda on this topic.

Modes of neighbourhood embeddedness in three multi-ethnic neighbourhoods in Lisbon: an exploratory analysis

The role of urban neighbourhoods in social cohesion has been extensively debated in recent times, both in academic and political circles. This paper explores different modes of coexistence and neighbourhood embeddedness in three multi-ethnic neighbourhoods in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Using factor and cluster analysis, with data collected in a survey of the native and immigrant population and drawing upon complementary qualitative data from focus groups with key actors in each neighbourhood, five modes of neighbourhood embeddedness are identified. These modes serve to enhance our understanding of the nature of social interactions and social networks between and within groups. A geographical perspective is adopted incorporating possible effects relating to the characteristics of the neighbourhood as well as the socio-ethnic and demographic profiles of the respondents.

Book Reviews : T.B. Salgueiro a Cidadade Em Portugal: Uma Geografia Urbana EdiçöesAfrontamento, Porto, 1992, pp. 439

Part III comprises three chapters concerned with the potential role that international organizations could play in regional development, including one by van Zon on the importance of technological and innovation policy. Part IV consists of three chapters by Polish geographers addressing the concepts of region, regionalism and regionalization in ECE. Though touching on several important issues, more than anything else this section reveals the methodological and theoretical gulf that exists between social science in the two halves of Europe. As if the editors reached the same conclusion, Part V considers research priorities for social science in ECE. Thus the three chapters in the section, which outline the challenges, tasks and research agendas, include a call to social scientists in ECE to upgrade their methodological foundations, not least through a discourse with western theories of industrial and