The Integration of Eastern Immigrants in Portugal. Contributions to its analysis

Abstract

This article presents part of the conclusions of a research carried out between 2005 and 2007 in the Centre for Territorial Studies, based on three case studies. A very important part of the information collected and analyzed here consists of interviews with 29 immigrants from Moldova, Romania, Russia and Ukraine. Among others, this study proposed to analyze the question of the processes of integration of the Eastern immigrants in Portugal. This analysis was done through a biographical and historical approach to the processes of disintegration experienced by immigrants and their families in societies of origin, to be treated elsewhere, as well as the analysis of migratory pathways in Portuguese society. At this level, we sought to account for the constraints on immigrants on the host society's side, and the characteristics of the flow itself, the strategies, the resources mobilized and, in a general way, the ways of reconstructing the participation of the immigrants. immigrants in the host society. Finally, we aimed to consider the segmented nature of the integration processes, analyzing the characteristics of the territorial contexts in which immigrants settle.