18ª IMISCOE Conference
Participation of CIES-Iscte researchers

 

The 18th edition of the IMISCOE Conference "Crossing borders, connecting cultures" took place online, from July 7 to 9, 2021, with the participation of several CIES-Iscte researchers.

 

The members of the center presented research topics as diverse as: international students in Portugal; the Golden Visa and Chinese migrants in Portugal; Migrants from Latin America and remigration to Europe; Humanitarian crisis in Venezuela and migratory policies; Natality of Cape Verdean and Portuguese women in a comparative perspective; the return of Portuguese retired emigrants, among others.

 

The Annual Conference of the IMISCOE Network aims to support the exchange of ideas and knowledge among its members, giving them the opportunity to present and discuss papers and obtain feedback.

 

CIES-Iscte is part of IMISCOE Network - International Migration, Integration and Social Cohesion in Europe, with researcher Raquel Matias as its representative.

 

 


 

 

Session #11 - Chinese migrants and their descendants’ experiences in a pandemic Europe

 

Chinese students in Portugal during the covid19 outbreak: from mobile elite to uninvited guests?

Thais França (CIES-Iscte)

 

In the last decades, Portugal has invested in its image as a diversity opened country as part of its strategy to attract skilled migrants, including international students. Building up on its good ranking in the MIPEX index and the colonial narratives of Portuguese society sharing an empathy toward different people and its ability to embrace different cultures. China and Portugal’s relation dates back the colonial times when the Portuguese arrived in Macau in XVI century, a link that Portugal has strategically used to boost their political and social relations in the present. Chinese student mobility to Portugal is a fairly recent flow when compared both to other destinations in Europe, mainly the UK, France and Germany as well as to other origin countries flows to Portugal. It has, however, grown steadily in a way that in 2019, they represented the 5th largest community among international students in the country. Since the covid19 spread, worldwide, Chinese citizen have been reported experiencing high levels of racism, xenophobia and discrimination, as the virus has been referred to by the mainstream media and by the conservative elite as the “Chinese virus”. This paper aims at analyzing the experience of Chinese international students in Portugal during the health crisis outbreak, looking at how the hidden vulnerabilities and inequalities in international students mobility schemes shaped their experiences. The evidences are drawn from 20 semi-structured interviews with Chinese students who were in Portugal throughout the pandemic. It shed lights on how the idea of international Chinese students as elite and privileged migrants is erroneous and it raises the awareness to the invisible precarious social experience endured by these students in the host society. Further, it challenges the national myth of Portugal as a non-racist country. 

 


  

Session #77 - Older Migrants 1

 

Im/mobility patterns after retirement: A comparative analysis of Swiss and non-Swiss older people

Liliana Azevedo (CIES-Iscte and SFM, University of Neuchâtel)

Livia Tomás (Institute of Sociology, University of Neuchâtel)

 

Based on two qualitative research projects on transnational mobilities after retirement, the authors analyze critically similarities and differences of older people with and without a migration background. The mobility of ageing populations has attracted much interest in the last years. Research has shown that transnational mobility concerns older people (60+) with and without a migration background alike, but scholars usually do study these two groups separately. Our main contribution to the literature is to conduct a comparative analysis of the transnational mobilities and experiences of Swiss and non-Swiss older people. This paper is based on two ongoing qualitative research projects studying transnational ageing and mobility patterns. Both authors conducted qualitative interviews with older people (60+) who have in common the entitlement to a Swiss pension because they spent most of their working life in Switzerland. While one study focuses on former labor migrants who returned to Portugal after their retirement, the other research emphasizes the experiences of retirees without a migration background that are currently living in Spain. Drawing on qualitative interviews, the authors analyze the similarities and differences in the reasons and motivations for their re-location to another country and their transnational mobility in old age. We will show that although there exist some differences in their transnational practices due to former mobility, we can also find similarities between the two groups.

 


 

 

Session #101 - Migrant entrepreneurship, self-employment, and economic strategies

 

A Passport to Western Lifestyle: Chinese Golden Visa Citizens in Portugal and Hungary

Sofia Gaspar (CIES-Iscte)

Fanni Beck (Central European University and CIES-Iscte Visiting Researcher)

 

Golden Visa Programs have thrived in the EU for a while now, allowing third-national citizens to acquire residence permits or citizenship in exchange for financial investment. Two European countries in which these programs have been recently attracting investors are Portugal (Residence Permit for Investment Activity – since 2012) and Hungary (i.e., Hungarian Residency Bond Program - 2013-2017), despite their semi-peripheral position in the EU and relatively modest ranking within imaginaries of global development hierarchy. Among the main applicants, Chinese citizens are those who benefit most from these programs. Contrary to the view that Golden Visa schemes are mostly determined by financial and economic-led motivations, this paper highlights how Chinese investors in Portugal and Hungary are (also) driven by lifestyle and educational motivations for their children, in asking for these residence permits. Our observation field is multi-sited - Lisbon and Budapest metropolitan areas -, in order to obtain a comparative cross-national approach. Using in-depth interviews to Chinese Golden Visa applicants established in both cities, we explore how their narratives contain non-material ideals, and a desire for a more relaxed and ecological lifestyle, as well as better educational opportunities for their children in cosmopolitan Western countries – yet outside of the Anglophone world. These non-materialist motivations contrast and challenge possible instrumental and economic reasons behind residency through investment programs.  We sustain that Chinese citizens can uncover more complex set of motivations applying for Golden Visa schemes, since they search for reproduction of their high-middle class privileges while settling down in better lifestyle environments abroad.

 


 

Session #168 - Following ‘Latino’ migrants through the Americas and Europe: (not)crossing borders amidst growing inequalities

 

Ideology, populism and migration regimes: why Venezuelans are welcomed in Bolsonaro’s conservative Brazil

Thais França (CIES-Iscte)

 

Since the beginning of the 20th century, South America has presented an opened discourse on migration policies. At a time when the EU was enforcing restrictive policies, South American policy makers had promoted a more generous approach towards migrants and their rights. However, the region could not avoid the advance of the conservative wave that has been growing worldwide. Supported by a theoretical framework that links political regimes to immigration policy (Hollifield, 1992; Joppke, 1998), we investigate the on-going transformation in Brazilian immigration policies. The country emerges as an emblematic case in South America, as after 14 years under a center/left-wing government, in 2018 the ultra-conservatives rose to the power through the election of extreme-right wing President Bolsonaro. Backed up by the authoritarian regime discourse that frames immigrants as threats to public order, he strongly criticized the UN Migration Pact and formally withdrew Brazil from the deal. In spite of that, Brazil has adopted a solidary attitude towards Venezuelans fleeing from several crises arriving in the country. It was only during the pandemic outbreak, that restrictions were implemented. This paper examines the currently Brazilian double standard regarding migration, based on Bolsonaro’s discourse and the measures put in place. Our findings indicate how the decline of the country’s liberal democracy has fostered a rise in immigration restrictions. Further, it shows how the apparent contradiction between the overly restrictive policies on immigration and the exceptional open door approach towards Venezuelans are underpinned by the government’s far-right ideology and populist political strategy.

 

 

Crossing different borders in contexts of growing inequalities: Latin American-migrant origin citizens remigrating within Europe

Anastasia Bermudez (Universidad de Sevilla & CEDEM-Universite de Liege)

Simone Castellani (CIES-Iscte)

Angeles Escriva (Universidad de Huelva)

 

In the last few years, especially since the 2008 economic crisis, there has been growing awareness of the phenomenon of third-country origin migrants remigrating within Europe, mainly as EU (naturalised) citizens. This phenomenon remains partly hidden statistically, but has become particularly significant in the case of secondary migrations from Spain to other EU countries. Based on previous projects and a current study being undertaken with Spanish nationals migrating to London, Brussels and Berlin since 2008, involving both quantitative and qualitative data, we look at the different ‘borders’ (materially and metaphorically) crisscrossed by these ‘mobile’ citizens. On the one hand, EU policies allow for freedom of movement within its borders, although recent mobilities show growing inequalities within intra-EU flows. On the other hand, Spanish-Latin American dual citizens migrating to these cities can find themselves in-between spaces – those occupied by previous Latin American migrants residing there and the new Spanish emigration – seeking to get the best of both worlds while negotiating diverse inequality structures based on nationality, class, gender, race or ethnicity. These experiences help highlight gaps between current migration policies and fast changing migration flows affecting Latin American migrants in Europe, which could be different from policy contexts in Latin America and the US. Equally, they help make more visible the strategies put forward by European-Latin American citizens to cope with diverse crises, including the present COVID-related scenario. 

 

 

The role of migration policies and practices in Argentina, Portugal and the United States: The Venezuelan humanitarian crisis in comparative perspective

Beatriz Padilla (University of South Florida & CIES-Iscte)

 

In the last years Venezuelans have become one of the largest asylum seekers communities worldwide. Thus, International Organizations (UN, IOM, UNHCR) talk about a humanitarian crisis without precedent in the Latin American region and the world. Migration studies indicate that migration policies play a role on how migration flows and experiences unfold and on how practices develop. This paper will analyze and compare migration policies and practices designed by the State to deal with the sudden increase of Venezuelan migration in three different countries of destination for Venezuelans, also with different types of historical links and migration history. The analysis contemplates not only policies (legal frameworks related to migration and integration policies) but also practices arising from civil society organizations and migrant experience themselves. Applying a comparative perspective is key to understand the multilevel governance of migration policies and practices at the local, regional and international levels.

 

 

Rebuscarse la Vida: The Resourcefulness of Latinas Navigating COVID 19 in Philadelphia

Veronica Montes (Bryn Mawr College) Erika Busse (Macalester College) Beatriz Padilla (University of South Florida & CIES-Iscte)

 

The COVID 19 pandemic has made evident the stark inequalities that grieve undocumented immigrants. The lack of documentation, and the consequently limited access to relief programs, has placed this subset of immigrants in dire straits, exacerbating the state of being in a liminal space (Sutton et al 2011). We focus on immigrants’ agency (Giddens 1984) to argue that due to their permanent sense of crisis, undocumented immigrants face the COVID 19 pandemic as yet another crisis they have to deal with by rearticulating their “migrant capital” (Busse and Vásquez 2016) they acquired through migration. We draw on an on-going collaborative ethnographic research that began three months after the break of the pandemic in 2020. The project focuses on the work a power building organization (New Sanctuary Movement of Philadelphia) is carrying out as a broker between a relief program the City of Philadelphia offers to tenants and the Latino immigrant community. Our analysis looks at the articulation displayed at three different levels: the city of Philadelphia relief program, the work of the New Sanctuary Movement, and the undocumented immigrant community. Empirically, our research focuses on the agency exerted by Latinas at the intersection of poverty, undocumented status and a health crisis. Our theoretical contribution revolves around extending the concept of migrant capital with a gender perspective and locating it in the context of settlement during a health crisis.

 


 

Session #225 - Gender & Sexuality 5

 

Number of children of Cape Verdean and Portuguese women in Portugal. Are they really that different?

Pedro Candeias (Instituto de Saúde Ambiental, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa)

Violeta Alarcão (Instituto de Saúde Ambiental, Faculdade de Medicina, Universidade de Lisboa and Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, Centro de Investigação e Estudos de Sociologia)

Sónia Cardoso Pintassilgo (Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa / CIES-Iscte)

Madalena D’Avelar (Iscte - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa / CIES-Iscte)

 

The aim of this communication is to compare fertility behaviors between Cape Verdeans migrant and Portuguese native women in Portugal.

According to the national statistics, in 2019, about 11.000 live births were born to foreign mothers, corresponding to 12% of the total of births. The same year, the foreign population in the total resident population was 6%, indicating that births are more frequent in foreign women. The second most represented foreign nationality is the Cape Verdean, with about 37.000 citizens in Portugal in 2019.

This communication represents an exploratory analysis and is empirically supported by the FEMINA project (Fertility, Immigration and Acculturation), in which a probabilistic sample of 151 Cape Verdean migrant and 102 Portuguese native women of childbearing age residing in the Greater Lisbon area was surveyed. The average number of children was 1.13 in Portuguese women (mean age 37), and 1.15 in Cape Verdean women (mean age 32). In order do understand these differences obtained by a Ancova that controlled the effect of age (p=0.001) the following hypotheses will be explored. 

The hypothesis associated with the length of stay postulate that the fertility of migrant women is especially high upon arrival, since the purpose of the migration can be to start a family. A competing hypothesis holds that the first years in the destination society are disruptive moments, so fertility should be low in the early times. The length of stay can also be related to an adjustment to host society fertility patterns. In a similar sense, the hypothesis of transnationalism assumes that more people with coethnic sociability networks will have a fertility behavior similar to one in the country of origin. The hypothesis of socialization argues that is important where the woman spends her childhood, since this is where she will internalize the dominant norms regarding fertility. This work expects to contribute to the discussion of fertility related factors.

 


 

Session #253 - Education & Social Inequality 7

 

Portuguese-speaking African students in higher education mobility: What answers of social and academic inclusion have being provided by the Portuguese Higher Education?

 

Ana Raquel Matias (CIES-Iscte)

Paulo Feytor Pinto (APEDI; CELGA-ILTEC)

Vera Rodrigues (CIES-Iscte)

 

This paper examines the existing answers of social and academic inclusion provided by a Higher Education Institution (HEI) to African international students from Portuguese speaking countries, whose mobility to Portugal dates back to the 1980s.

This analysis results from an ongoing action research project called “Trovoada de Ideias - Linguistic and social inclusion of Students from the Portuguese Speaking African Countries (PALOP) in the Portuguese Higher Education (HE)”*, conducted at Iscte since 2016.

The project was set up on previous focus groups diagnosis focus groups with students and professors in Iscte (2016). These discussions highlighted that the sociolinguistic contexts of these students lead to unexpected and ignored situations of miscomprehension among speakers of different varieties of Portuguese, hindering the social inclusion of a significant number of these students and, consequently, their academic performance.

Based on this evidence and on the need for Iscte to build a frame for improving responses to multicultural challenges implied in the social dynamics of language variation, partnerships were established with two internal services: the Laboratory of Transversal Competences and the Social Action Services. This led to the implementation of the following actions: 1) the creation of a course unit (UC) on transversal skills in academic language; 2) the creation of a team of mediator-mentor students. Additionally, several focus groups were held with African Students Associations and professors from Portuguese HEIs aiming to produce a brochure of pedagogical guidelines for professors from HEIs.

Through an in-depth analysis of these actions, we expect to contribute to the linguistic and social inclusion of these students in the academic context of Iscte.