The associativism as a strategy of survival: the migratory phenomenon in the Zona do Pinhal

Abstract

The internal migrations from the centre of Portugal mainly towards Lisbon have been progressively depopulating the Zona do Pinhal, one of the poorest and least developed regions of the Portuguese inland. Associative strategies have been continuously devised in order to create a network connecting the inhabitants of the Serra and the migrant people in the city. Such a companhionship is explicitly expressed in the search for improvements in their birthplaces through the so-called Comissão de Melhoramentos (Committee of Improvements); meanwhile, new opportunities are arranged for both parts of the community to meet. Either in Lisbon or in the Serra, leaderships and influences are brought into play by these two parts of the community separated by the migration phenomenon, while the whole social structure is being reproduced with new data.