Belonging among young people with migrant background in Portugal: local, national, and transnational identifications

ABSTRACT

Belonging is a timely and highly relevant social phenomena both in youth studies and within migration research. Drawing on a multi-sited qualitative study carried out in Portugal, this article aims to discuss the sense of belonging that young Afro-descendants, Ukrainians, and Romanians forge in relation to their national and local context, and to their cultural heritage. The findings indicate that most young people with migrant background develop multiple belongings, combining a sense of belonging to Portugal, to their homeland and cultural heritage. Moreover, while some afro-descendants reveal a sense of identification with a ‘world culture’, others manifest strong attachments to their city and neighborhood. We argue that young people’s belonging to places and cultures is shaped by the aesthetic appreciation of spaces, landscapes and cultures, as well as by social class, cultural practices, thick interactions with people of the same ethnic background, and by civic and political participation.

KEYWORDS:

• Belonging
• migrant youth
• integration

Acknowledgements

We are deeply grateful to the immigrant associations for their collaboration for this research project.

Author contributions

All authors have read and agree to the published version of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Foundation for Science and Technology (FCT), under Grant number PD/BD/114285/2016.