Migrations, Ethnicity, Transnationalism;
Inter-ethnic relations, Racism and Xenophobia;
Identity processes, Structural-Dynamic Approach, Cultural diversity;
Material Culture, Consumption, Ethnic Minority, Media

Despite the acceleration and progressive diversification of migratory fluxes to Portugal, and in a wider sense, to the European Union and other central areas of the world system, migration to and from Portugal has continued and increased. These migratory movements spark new social realities that demand closer study, e.g. the development of transnational elites; new strategies in the establishment of exogenous communities within social and market niches; processes of identity negotiation and strategies of social positioning; the diversification of collective discourses and practices towards the contexts of origin and hosting; the emergence of divergent (composite, undefined or opportunistic) identities; linguistic, religious, cultural and ethnic pluralization of the national and European space; all combined with different forms of materialization and competition expressing the new cultural diversity. The activism of ethnic associations and NGOs towards human and cultural rights, the civic and political dimensions of integration and citizenship, the growth of xenophobic and racist tensions and inter-ethnic conflicts, the new centrality of the issues of migration and inter-ethnic relations within the political discourse, the attempts to monitor and assist the integration of this new “ethnic workforce”, the political criticism of multiculturalism, connected to the reactionary emergence of new nationalistic discourses — all these are significant subjects for research in a multi-situated study of various migrant communities, different host countries with diverse cultural and political dynamics, and the migrants’ communities of origin. Such migrations involve multigenerational histories; therefore, they are frequently grounded in a colonial framework and part of post-colonial dynamics; while the study of complex local and transnational inter-ethnic relations allows us to discover powerful and multidimensional identity processes involving issues of continuity and the cultural renewal of intergenerational, family and gender relations, particularly within European-born generations. These result in internal debates within each community and within the host nations, aligned with or against hegemonic discourses. Such debates test the diverse trends of public, religious and ethnic opinion, forcing them to expose and re-form themselves in this new arena — one often highlighted in the international, national or ethnic media. This issue is further complicated by the presence of long-term ethnic minorities, targeted by extreme cases of European xenophobia (e.g. “gypsies”), and the increasingly visible presence of returnees from former colonies or from their own migrant experience among Portuguese expatriate communities; as well as the significant role played by migrant communities abroad in the reconstruction of regional identities (namely in Madeira and the Azores), and the overall representation of national identity itself, in the competitive arena at the core of the world-system. On all these levels, research on competing processes and strategies — rather than simply and pragmatically replacing scientific inquiry with the monitoring of “positive” and “negative” practices and conduct — demands that one turn to comparative studies, international cooperation and fieldwork, the development of tools capable of grounding such comparative studies, thus providing a unique and sound opportunity to test, revise and update socio-anthropological theory.