Title  Portuguese around the world. Integration and transnational practices of Portuguese in Germany
Author  Pedro Miguel Esteves Varela Candeias
Advisors  Ana Margarida de Seabra Nunes de Almeida, João Alfredo dos Reis Peixoto and Russell King
Year  2021
Institution  Institute of Social Sciences, University of Lisbon
Degree  PhD
Area  Sociology of inequalities, minorities and social movements
Keywords  Integration, immigrant transnationalism, Portuguese emigration, Germany
URI  http://hdl.handle.net/10451/49997

Abstract

Intra-European migration accounts for a significant proportion of the population leaving Portugal. Membership of the Common European Space and the Schengen area facilitate this movement. However, integration into the destination society is not a given. Geographical proximity and the generalization of certain information and communication technologies make it easier for Portuguese emigrants to have contact with their country of origin, but not everyone does so in the same way or with the same intensity. Against this backdrop, the aim is to find out more about Portuguese emigration to Germany, with an emphasis on the relationship these Portuguese establish with the country of destination - integration; and the relationship they establish with Portugal - immigrant transnationalism. The aim is also to identify how both phenomena - integration and transnationalism - can be related. In order to respond to these objectives, we first analyze official statistics, both Portuguese and German. These data serve as a context for the main empirical focus of the work, which consists of the analysis of online questionnaire survey data collected between 2014 and 2015, as part of a broader project on Portuguese emigration. A total of 369 responses to this questionnaire survey from Germany were analyzed. The qualitative component includes the results of two missions to German cities with a presence of Portuguese emigrants: Berlin and Hamburg, each mission giving rise to around a dozen interviews. The data shows that Portuguese emigration to Germany is an accumulation of migratory waves that have adapted to the structural characteristics of both countries. Integration takes place in different ways, and very often seems to depend on factors such as the emigrants' basic education and/or their employability strategy. Relations with Portugal can take different forms and also have different explanatory factors, whether related to the emigrants' economic and/or cultural capital, the existence of dependent family members in Portugal, or less integration in the labor or socio-cultural spheres. When both phenomena are combined, various links are found, which take different forms depending on the dimension or sub-dimension being analyzed.