Pedro Góis

Identity Processes and Dynamics in Multi-Ethnic Europe

dynamics as never before. But in a post-colonial, multi-ethnic Europe, what is identity? How is it constructed? This book endeavours to answer these questions and more. Eleven of the thirteen chapters present empirical case studies from the Basque Country, the Netherlands, Switzerland, the United Kingdom and Portugal – thus resulting in one of the first international volumes to highlight Portugal’s diverse and complex migration flows. Transnationalism also takes centre stage in several contributions that survey various types of informal and formal networks in local communities and across national borders. Via American studies, anthropology, cultural studies, ethnology, history, social psychology and sociology, the authors come from an array of disciplines as dynamic as the continent about which they write.

Portuguese Emigrants and the State: An Ambivalent Relationship

Since the nineteenth century Portugal has been a country of emigration. As a result of this continuous outflow, estimates indicate that the number of Portuguese citizens and their descendants living in another country is between 2 and 4.8 million. Their main countries of residence in the Americas are the United States, Brazil, Canada and Venezuela; in Europe, they live mainly in France, Switzerland and Germany. Taken together these seven countries host 80 per cent of all Portuguese living abroad. After a brief description of Portuguese emigration history, with a special emphasis on current emigration flows and the development of Portuguese communities in different host countries, the chapter will analyse the relationships that Portuguese citizens abroad maintain with their country of origin. Special attention will be given to Portuguese political institutions and the legal framework built to mould the connections that Portuguese emigrants maintain with the Portuguese State. As will be shown, the Portuguese State and its political elites have, particularly in recent decades, manifested discomfort in dealing with contemporary emigration flows and Portuguese communities abroad. This attitude towards emigration has led to an ambivalent position held by both the Portuguese State vis-a-vis Portuguese citizens living in other countries and emigrants towards their homeland.

Structural Emigration: The Revival of Portuguese Outflows

During the last two centuries, Portugal has witnessed continuous migration flows. Using data from different sources (both from the destination countries and from Portugal), we will show that over the past 30 years Portugal never stopped being a country of emigration and that, in recent times, these outflows have become more diversified in terms both of destination countries and the profiles of the emigrants. Without neglecting emigration flows before 2008, particular attention will be given to emigration flows that developed after the start of the economic crisis. We will show that current Portuguese emigration is not exclusively due to the economic crisis, but also due to the structural characteristics of migration flows, linked to migration networks from the past and the dependence on different migration systems. In the second part, we will reflect on both the relation of the Portuguese state to its emigrant communities, and the current political debates on the recent increase in emigration flows, and their connection to the economic crisis.

The third way. Humanitarian corridors in peacetime as a (local) civil society response to a EU’s common failure

Migration has been and will continue to be one of the key issues for Europe in the coming decades. A growing number of potential refugees attempts to escape transit countries to reach the European Union by embarking in dangerous journeys to cross the Mediterranean Sea and illegally enter the European Union. Within the European Union resettlement represents a ‘durable solution’ for vulnerable forced migrants alongside local integration and voluntary repatriation, a protection tool for potential people whose lives and liberty are at risk. In Italy, a group of institutions from civil society and the Italian Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Interior signed a Protocol of Agreement for the establishment of Humanitarian Corridors to ensure the legal and safe resettlement of asylum seekers. Our article will show how these Humanitarian Corridors proved to be a successful multi-stakeholder engagement to support safe and legal pathways to protection as well as durable solutions for third country nationals in need of protection.