Second-generation return migration, integration and identity strategies, and transnationalism

João Sardinha, PhD., is a associate researcher at the Centro de Estudos das Migrações e Relações
Interculturais (Centre for the Study of Migrations and Intercultural Relations) - CEMRI, Universidade
Aberta in Lisbon, Portugal. He earned his PhD in Migration Studies from the University of Sussex in the
United Kingdom in 2007.
He is currently heads up projects on the return of Portuguese emigrant descendants back to their
ancestral homeland; on the identity strategies, sense of belonging and the transnational dealings of
Portuguese emigrant descendants in Canada; and on lifestyle (expatriate) migrants in Central Portugal.
He is an invited contributor to the project DIASBOLA: Football (Soccer) and Migration and has also
carried out extensive research on immigrant associative phenomena in Portugal.
Research interests include: second-generation migrant return, migrant life histories; qualitative
research methodologies, immigrant associative phenomenon; immigrant integration and identity
strategies; transnationalism and transnational social spaces; immigrant active and political
participation; geographies of ethno-cultural manifestations, symbolism and space; urban/rural
contrasts of immigrant settlement; immigrant services provision; lifestyle migrations; the Portuguese
migration and diaspora.
He is member of the European Network of Excellence IMISCOE – International Migration, Integration &
Social Cohesion, of the Lifestyle Migration Hub Research Network and co-founder of the Lusophone
Studies Association. He is also a partner researcher at the research centre Diversitas – Núcleo de
Estudos das Diversidades, Intolerâncias (Research Centre), University of São Paulo, Brazil.

2008-2014
Project leader (individual project) - ‘The Return of the Portuguese Second-Generation to Portugal: Identity,
Belonging and Transnational Lives’, funded by FCT – Sciences and Technologies Foundation Post-Doctoral Award.

2012-2013
Project leader (individual project) - ‘The Transnational Strategies of Portuguese-Canadian Migrant
Descendant Returnees’; funded by Faculty Research Program, International Council for Canadian Studies.

2009-2013
Project team member - ‘Migrações Contemporâneas em Cidades Globais: Intolerâncias e Solidariedades’
(Contemporary Migrations in Global Cities: Intolarence and Solidarity), in partnership with Laboratório de
Estudos sobre a Intolerância (LEI), Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil. Portuguese sub-project: ‘Biographical
Histories of Immigrants in Lisbon - Memories, Trajectories and Social Processes’; funded by CEMRI –
Universidade Aberta.

2011-2012
Project leader - ‘Identity, Belonging, Civic Engagement and Multiculturalism: Portuguese-Canadian
Immigrant Descendants in Canada’ in partnership with York University, Toronto and Mount Saint Vincent
University, Halifax, Canada; funded by International Research Linkages Program, International Council for
Canadian Studies.

2009-2010
Project leader (individual project) - ‘Place, Identity and Belonging: Returning to Portugal and the
Transnational Lives of Portuguese-Canadian Emigrant Descendants’; funded by Faculty Research Program,
International Council for Canadian Studies.

2008-2010
Project collaborator - ‘Multicultural Cities and the Political Integration of Immigrants in the Metropolitan
Area of Lisbon’, coordinated by Ana Paula Beja Horta (CEMRI – Universidade Aberta);
funded by Observatório da Imigração, ACIDI.

2007-2010
Project collaborator - ‘DIASBOLA – Futebol e Imigração’, coordinated Nina Tiesler (ICS - Universidade de
Lisboa); funded by Fundação para a Ciência e para a Tecnologia.
DIASBOLA Canada country expert and head of sub-project: ‘Portuguese soccer, Canadian ice hockey and the
Portuguese in Canada’.

2005-2007
Project collaborator - ‘POLITIS – Building Europe with New Citizens? An Inquiry into the Civic Participation of
Naturalised Citizens and Foreign Residents in 25 Countries’, coordinated by the Interdisciplinary Centre for
Education and Communication in Migration Processes at the University of Oldenburg, Oldenburg, Germany;
funded by the European Commission.

2012-07-12 / 2012-07-16