Title   Passagens por Macau: memórias e trajectórias de jovens portugueses no Oriente (Original)
          Passages through Macau: memories and trajectories of young Portuguese in the East (EN)
Author  Inês Ramires Ferro da Costa Pessoa
Advisor  José Machado
Year  2012
Institution ISCTE (University Institute of Lisbon)  
Degree  PhD
Area  Sociology 
Keywords  Youth, Macao, Migration, Identities, Community, Life stories
URI http://hdl.handle.net/10071/6853

Abstract

The presence of Portuguese young migrants in Macau, in the 80s and 90s of the twentieth century, whose parents, mostly qualified professionals, occupied middle or top positions in the administrative sector and/or in private institutions of the territory, represents one out of the large number of examples that constitute the complex and multifaceted web of geographical mobility. A singular example in its character, because of the ambiguity of the legal-political status of Macao - at that time, a Chinese territory administrated by the Portuguese - along with its socio-cultural specificities; but simultaneously displaying some characteristics also observed in other migratory contexts. For instance, the young migrants’ challenge of coping with the breaking or weakening of some of their primary commitments, and also the need to adapt to a new physical, social and cultural environment, having to manage the process of social deentailment and re-entailment associated with the movement. Basing our study in a qualitative analytical approach supported by life stories of young people aged from 17 to 32, complemented with relevant statistical and biographical documentation, we have focused on the young people’s identity transformation within the context of geographical mobility. For that purpose, this migratory flow was characterized taking into account the migrants’ profile, the structural, contextual and individual factors of their departure, the institutional framework and support provided, together with the length of their stay. These variables were, subsequently, analyzed in close relation to the young people’s patterns of integration in the host society - assimilative or communitarian in tendency -, plus the repercussions of the stay in Macau in their life paths, concerning life conditions and lifestyles; friendship and social capital; intercultural exchanges and assimilation of Asian references, feelings of belonging and sense of place.