Conference
Formal Access to Political Spaces: Electoral Participation of Immigrants in Portugal

April 9th, 2010, 14:30, ACIDI Auditorium, Lisbon

 
Presentation

The project “Formal access to local political spaces in the local context: immigrant voters and elected in Portuguese municipalities and parishes” funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology (reference: IME/SDE/81870/2006), has for aim to analyze the reasons by which immigrants decide or decide not to register as voters and run as part of the local elections lists. This means realizing the large number of potential voters who are not registered, which are the limits to immigrant participation in Portugal , as well as to analyze the differences between the last four local government elections (1997, 2001, 2005 e 2009).
Combined with data produced by other studies on immigration in Portugal, the intention is to have a representative sample of the territorial basis which may allow to understand the impact of different local policies and social conditions, as well as the differences in the participation manners of the various migrants sources with the right to political participation in the Portuguese local context. We seek to evaluate the role of immigrants and their interaction with political organizations, the mobilizations degrees, as well as the access to public office.
 

Conference Aims

The main purpose of the meeting is to take stock of research undertaken within  the Project, namely, of the results produced up to the moment, counting with the contributions of the discussion and of the experiences on the thematic of political participation of immigrants in Portugal. Also pursued is the assessment of the possible impacts at the decision to participate actively and passively, in terms of policy decisions in the context of Portuguese municipalities and parishes and as well as the level of action in the field of associativism in the process of formal political participation of immigrants.

 
Organization
the “Formal access to local political spaces in the local context: immigrant voters and elected in Portuguese municipalities and parishes” team integrates the Democracy, Multicultural Citizenship and Participation Research Group of the Centre for Social Studies of the University of Coimbra. Also, it counts on the collaboration of the team from SociNova – Migrations, of the Studies on Sociology Research Group of the  Universidade Nova of Lisbon.

 
Project Coordinators:
- Fernando Ruivo
- Clemens Zobel
- Giovanni Allegretti

 
Project Team: Fernando Ruivo, Clemens Zobel, Giovanni Allegretti, Margarida Marques, Joana Lopes Martins, Carlos Elias Barbosa, Ilda Fortes

For further information, please contact:

Carlos Elias Barbosa
eliasbarbosa@ces.uc.pt

Ilda Fortes
ildafortes@ces.uc.pt

Centro de Estudos Sociais da Universidade de Coimbra
Colégio de São Jerónimo, Apartado 3087, 3001-401, Coimbra
Tel. 239 855 570
Fax. 239 855 589

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