Os pequenos comércios como um ativo para a cidadania europeia: um olhar político sobre as lojas de rua geridas por migrantes no Porto e Lisboa

Speaker

Priscilla Santos

PhD student in Urban Studies CIES-Iscte NOVA-Fcsh and Iscte

Commentary

José Mapril
Professor of Anthropology NOVA-Fcsh and CRIA

VENUE

Room A206, FCSH Torre A 2º Floor Av. de Berna Lisboa

ABSTRACT

In this presentation I will explore how migrants in the areas of Bonfim and Batalha in Porto and Anjos in Lisbon are opening small street businesses as a way of obtaining a residence permit and, after five years, applying for Portuguese/European citizenship. I argue that these migrants use their small businesses to obtain the desired 'red passport' and thus improve their citizenship status, revealing the power dynamics inherent in the dichotomy between the European Union and the rest. This paper is the result of my ongoing doctoral research. So far I have conducted around 60 interviews with migrants from South Asia, the Middle East, South Africa, the United States and Brazil, for example. I have observed the pursuit of European citizenship as a goal that cuts across different racial and class identities. Many of these migrants aim for free mobility within the European Union in order to move to richer European countries where they can earn higher incomes. In addition to economic opportunities, the 'red passport' would give them access to quality education for themselves and their children, enriching their cultural capital. These small migrant traders crave the symbolic power linked to European citizenship to counterbalance their multiple marginalities.

BIOGRAPHIES

Priscilla Santos is a PhD candidate in Urban Studies at Iscte-IUL and FCSH-Nova. She holds a master's degree in Sociology from the University of Porto and a bachelor's degree in Journalism from the Federal University of Minas Gerais (BR). Her main research interests lie in the processes of transformation of cities, migration and global and urban inequalities. In her current research project, she explores how class differences, racialization and migratory status relate to the migratory trajectories and urban emplacement of small migrant traders in the areas of Bonfim, Porto, and Anjos, Lisbon. The focus is on analyzing global inequalities at the street level.

José Mapril obtained his PhD in Anthropology from ICS, University of Lisbon, with research on transnationalism and Islam among Bangladeshis in Lisbon. He is currently an assistant professor in the Anthropology department at FCSH-UNL and a researcher at CRIA NOVA. Between 2018 and 2021 he was director of CRIA. His research interests are transnationalities, migrations, subjectivities, cultural citizenship, Islam(s) and Muslims, Islamophobia and secularisms, which have been addressed through multi-sited ethnographies in Portugal, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom. She is currently conducting research on re-migration, life paths and perceptions of the future among Bangladeshis in Europe and on the relationship between processes of patrimonialization, Islam, Muslimness and cultural citizenship in Portugal.