Title   Dinâmicas transnacionais da emigração portuguesa em França (Original)
          Transnational dynamics of Portuguese emigration in France (EN)
Author  Sara Frias Moura Ramos
Advisor  Licínia Simão
Year  2014
Institution  Faculty of Economics, Univeristy of Coimbra
Degree  Masters
Area  International Relations - specialization in European Studies
Keywords  Transnationalism, Portuguese emigration, France, Aquitaine
URI https://hdl.handle.net/10316/27315

Abstract

Population movements, and more precisely migrations, remain a relatively unexplored theme
in the field of International Relations. Yet such a phenomenon affects and shapes the
relationships established between the vertices of the triangle formed by the country of origin,
the host country and the migrant. Guided by this belief, this paper aims to analyse the
Portuguese emigration to France in the light of the concept of transnationalism. The economic
crisis currently experienced in Portugal has led many Portuguese citizens to seek a better life
abroad, somehow reproducing the movement of large-scale emigration from the 60s and 70s.
A traditional destination of choice, France has hosted over the past years a significant
contingent of Portuguese emigrants, whose process of immigration and integration takes place
in a considerably different context permeated by the freedom of mobility granted by the
European Union. Focusing on the Portuguese community settled in the region of Aquitaine,
we aim to know to what extent these migrants fall into the category of "transmigrants" as it is
defined by Nina Glick Schiller, Linda Basch and Cristina Blanc-Szanton, i.e. "migrants who
develop and maintain multiple relationships – family, economic, social, organizational,
religious, and political - that cross borders". Given a set of indicators pertaining to
transnational economic, political and socio-cultural practices, we rely on data obtained from
Portuguese emigrants and institutional managers to measure the degree of transnationalism of
this community in these three domains. The gathered data allows us to conclude that the
emigrants participating in our study develop and maintain cross-border relations even if the
frequency of use of these transnational practices varies: we observed a strong component of
sociocultural and to some extent economic nature (regarding consumption habits and
movement of goods), while the data pertaining to the political indicators leads us to assert that
this component is virtually non-existent. Additionally, taking into account the frequent
travelling to Portugal, together with frequent contact through telecommunication means, the
interest shown in the Portuguese news, and especially the fact that the majority of respondents
identify themselves as being both Portuguese and French, we conclude that the definition of
"transmigrants" given by Glick Schiller, Basch and Blanc - Szanton applies to the Portuguese
emigrants who took part in this study.