Pedro Góis

Portuguese emigration has a long global history and, in recent decades, has increased substantially and diversified its range of destinations. Recent emigration, predominantly to the European Union and Lusophone countries in Africa, complemented the traditional 19th to twentieth centuries’ waves of emigration to the Americas. The Portuguese Diaspora is multigenerational and globally distributed, although diverse. How are those generations of migrants organized within the local spaces of the Diaspora? Based on an innovative survey of more than 500 Portuguese Diaspora organisations, this paper shows how migrant engagement policies and practices are evolving and dealing with the new types of Diaspora relations, organisations and institutions. The main output of this research is an exploratory typology of the contemporary apparatuses of these Portuguese Diaspora systems and their nodes. This typology characterises the modern political engagement of non-resident citizens through their participation in associations and other social networks. With this pioneering paper, we intend to open a discussion regarding the means and forms available to mobilise current and past emigrant groups within a meaningful Diaspora policy.

In this Editorial to the Special Issue, Góis, Oliveira and Gaspar offer a critical exploration of international migration, particularly in the Portuguese context. They challenge traditional perspectives, arguing that simplistic dichotomies are inadequate to understand the complexities of migration and integration. The authors delve into Portugal’s changing migration landscape, advocating for an appreciation of the diverse motivations and experiences of migrants. Emphasizing the need for inclusive, multicultural policies, the article highlights the importance of recognizing the heterogeneity within migrant communities. Central to the discussion is the interplay between knowledge, politics and migration policies. The authors analyse the influence of institutions in shaping public perception and policy formulation, stressing the need for a nuanced approach in migration studies. The challenges in measuring immigrant integration are addressed, with a focus on the multifaceted nature of integration within sociology. The article also tackles the complexities of racial categorization in the context of migration, emphasizing the fluidity of identities and calls for more inclusive approaches to understanding racial dynamics. Through its critical examination of migration phenomena, the article aims to enhance understanding and inform the development of more effective and inclusive migration policies.

Resumo Neste artigo analisamos os regressos da emigração portuguesa a Portugal numa perspetiva histórica, com base na literatura científica de maioria portuguesa produzida desde os anos 1980 sobre o tema. Com este conjunto dos trabalhos disponíveis é possível reconstituir o padrão dos regressos através do volume contabilizado nos censos (ou de outras formas), conhecer perfis de regressados e avaliar algum do impacto dos regressos no desenvolvimento das regiões de origem, atendendo a que a quase totalidade dos regressados se dirige para a mesma região de onde havia saído. Reconstruímos o padrão dos regressos e analisamos o perfil dos regressados com informação dos fluxos entre os anos 1980 e 2011 a partir de revisão da literatura existente; os indicadores do Eurostat permitem análise do volume mais recente das migrações de regresso. Constatamos uma relativa homogeneidade no perfil e dos regressos do passado, ao contrário da diferenciação dos regressos posteriores, resultantes de uma emigração que também se diversificou.

The health of migrants and refugees, which has long been a cause for concern, has come under greatly increased pressure in the last decade. Against a background where the world has witnessed the largest numbers of migrants in history, the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic has stretched the capacities of countries and of aid, health and relief organizations, from global to local levels, to meet the human rights and pressing needs of migrants and refugees for access to health care and to public health measures needed to protect them from the pandemic. The overview in this article of the situation in examples of middle-income countries that have hosted mass migration in recent years has drawn on information from summaries presented in an M8 Alliance Expert Meeting, from peer-reviewed literature and from reports from international agencies concerned with the status and health of migrants and refugees. The multi-factor approach developed here draws on perspectives from structural factors (including rights, governance, policies and practices), health determinants (including economic, environmental, social and political, as well as migration itself as a determinant) and the human security framework (defined as “freedom from want and fear and freedom to live in dignity” and incorporating the interactive dimensions of health, food, environmental, economic, personal, community and political security). These integrate as a multi-component ‘ecological perspective’ to examine the legal status, health rights and access to health care and other services of migrants and refugees, to mark gap areas and to consider the implications for improving health security both for them and for the communities in countries in which they reside or through which they transit.

Resumo: O interesse global nas práticas de engajamento dos emigrantes em diáspora tem crescido um pouco por todo o mundo. São disso exemplo as políticas ligadas ao retorno de emigrantes qualificados, à promoção de brain gain, ou destinadas a estimular a formação de redes de diáspora. Através de políticas públicas e de uma estratégia de comunicação eficaz poderia ser possível, pelo menos do ponto de vista do país de origem, reverter o sentimento de perda sociológica que representa a emigração de uma parte da sociedade nacional. Baseado num mapeamento global do movimento associativo português, o artigo encontra-se estruturado em duas partes. Na primeira parte, discutem-se as perspetivas teóricas que têm analisado as políticas e as práticas de vinculação dos migrantes aos seus países de origem. Na segunda, partindo da análise da recente emigração portuguesa, analisam-se, através de uma proposta de tipologia, as atuais formas organizativas dos portugueses no exterior.

Ever since 2005, there has been an intensification in the outflows of Portuguese nationals, characterized by the transformation in the institutional context in which they occur, the emergence new destination countries, and the simultaneous resurgence of flows to traditional destinations. This article, applying data gathered from France and the UK, enhances the comprehension of contemporary Portuguese intra-EU migratory flows. It shows how this emigration is characterized by continuities and discontinuities with previous flows and by similarities and dissimilarities in the socio demographic characteristics of emigrants and their migratory paths and strategies. One proportion of these flows emerges as qualitatively different from past economic migration flows as regards both migrant demographic features and their migration processes. We may ascribe another proportion to the traditional economic migration framework that has enabled migrants to extend their opportunity structure beyond the national context in response to the obstructions experienced within national borders.

This chapter addresses the theme of transnationalism and return in recent Portuguese emigration, namely the flows that occurred after the turn of the century. It starts with a brief theoretical overview on those topics, which constitute two relatively neglected characteristics of Portuguese emigration. Next, based on a survey carried out in 2014–2015 to more than 6000 recent emigrants, it reveals some of the links that they maintain with their home country, as well as their plans for the future, which include settlement in the destination country, return and re-emigration. Lastly, it examines data on returning emigrants – especially those that returned between 2001 and 2011 – extracted from the 2011 Census. The evidence reveals a significant number of returns, including individuals at both working and retirement ages and at all skill levels, thus exposing the unexpected complexity of movements. The results are based on the research project “Back to the future: new emigration and links with Portuguese society” (REMIGR), which aimed to ascertain the extent and characteristics of the new emigration wave. The project included an overview of emigration and return to and from all regions of the world, as well as case studies in UK, France, Luxembourg, Angola, Mozambique and Brazil.

The style of communication with the public about people and events related to migration is a key factor impacting on the possibilities for two-way social integration. Communication is a political tool in any subject area but now, during the largest migration movement in Europe of recent eras, we see a direct correlation between mainstream media and the rise of far-right ideals, through the impact on public sentiment. There is often a lack of evidence available and, even when it does exist and is well communicated, it may be ineffective because of cognitive dissonance. However, herein lies hope; scientists can improve their communication skills to make their analysis more accessible to the general public. The question is not why some forms of journalism approximate to, while others skew, the truth; they all emanate from facts filtered through self-interest and inherent bias. Rather, the question for society at large is how private newspapers and social media are losing the capacity to tell the truth in context; a protectionist stance to maintain their own wealth and power is going unnoticed or unchallenged. We argue that “easy read” versions of academic reporting should be delivered in accessible language outside of subscription-based journals via contemporary platforms such as social media or printed news media. While journalists use academic research, it is also the role of a greater number of academics to write for the public directly. For example, academics Noam Chomsky, Josef Stiglitz, and Amartya Sen regularly engage with this variety of media and impact social thought and awareness. But these are the exception and not the norm. This is evidenced by attitudes towards recent (2015–2017) migration movements into Europe where we are missing, in part, this kind of impact. This chapter compares reporting across critical events in the migration movement from 2015 onwards to showcase differences between a first-hand account attached to a human face with reporting in a dehumanised way, which in turn facilitates an approach underpinned by fear of change. The refugee narrative voice and the use of evidence-based information provide examples of how the public could be informed through a shift from writing for fellow academics to public writing. This chapter is about encouraging academics to write for the public in order to balance access to information on critical issues where public sentiment has an important effect, such as in the refugee movement. Influencing public sentiment is about using academic research to inspire involvement in debates that seek to find reason and justice. What we refer to here as scientific facts are really also social science. Being evidence-based is being committed not to developing a version of the “truth” and doggedly sticking to it but rather to being committed to a process of what Karl Popper described as “conjectures and refutations,” where there are no universal truths, only the application of scientific measures in the pursuit of truth through dialogue, considering evidence and theories and perspectives of other academics in the field. The chapter includes strategies for academics on writing for the general public.

Há 40 anos, Portugal era um país de emigração que tinha alguns imigrantes. Hoje é um país de migrações. Entre o retorno ou repatriamento de muitos nacionais portugueses e o acolhimento de centenas de milhares de estrangeiros, a demografia nacional ganhou diversidade e complexidade. Sem a imigração seríamos menos, mais pobres e mais velhos. Após o anunciado fim da emigração, constatamos que atravessámos vários ciclos de emigração e retorno, mas que nunca os fluxos de saída deixaram de ter consequências sociais e sociológicas. Afinal, a emigração é mais estrutural do que pensáramos. A dinâmica e diversidade das origens dos migrantes para Portugal, mas também a geografia múltipla dos destinos dos emigrantes portugueses, representam sinais de alteração do posicionamento do país no sistema migratório global. Portugal (ainda) não é um centro, mas (já) não é periferia (ou talvez o seja para alguns migrantes). A lei de nacionalidade evoluiu, ao sabor de ideologias mais ou menos inclusivas e alargou o número de cidadãos que fazem parte da comunidade nacional. Um país em movimento, pleno de dinâmicas migratórias, é um retrato possível que permite antever um futuro cheio de desafios de integração e de gestão da diversidade.