Contemporary studies of the Brazilian population in Portugal: Identity processes, class, gender and race

Abstract

This paper maps out three themes around which studies on Brazilian immigration to Portugal have revolved: "Class and Work"; "Gender and Prostitution" and "Identity Processes.” The first theme considers the division of migratory flows to Portugal into two "waves" differentiated by the social class of the migrants. The profusion of academic papers on "Gender and Prostitution" leaves open the question about the genealogy of the "mark of prostitution" that has stigmatized Brazilian female immigrants. Finally, “Identity processes” are marked by the ambivalence of miscegenation, a component of an imagined Brazilian identity and of an imagined Portuguese identity.