Emigration and the development of social welfare in Portugal

Abstract

This article analyses social policy in the 1960s and early 1970s. It shows that the expansion of the social welfare system was an attempt by the government to adapt to the emigration which began in the late 1950s. Other factors behind the expansion of the system were measures taken within the government by a group of senior officials who were inspired by the new life given to the Church’s social doctrines arising from Vatican II, the membership of some administrative officials in international communities of experts on social policy, and the attempt to legitimize the Marcelo Caetano regime.