Paper short abstract:

The presentation aims to understand how negotiations of a transnational nature influences the settlement decisions of Luso-descendant returnees from Canada in the pre- and post-economic crisis periods in Portugal, giving attention to the way belonging is (re)molded during these time periods.

Paper long abstract:

My proposed presentation seeks to analyse integration, sense of belonging and notion of transnationality among the descendants of Portuguese emigrants from Canada who have returned to Portugal. The key considerations to be scrutinised are the multiple interactions between place of origin and destination, and transnational network constructions and identification negotiations that take place in the post-return, here having as the backdrop of the analysis the current economic crisis Portugal finds itself going through. Given the fact that these returnees all returned to Portugal at a time when the country was economically stable, my presentation aims to understand how interactions and negotiations of a national and transnational nature influence the settlement decisions of these returnees and their life options in the pre- and post-crisis eras, giving particular attention to the way belonging and integration is (re)molded during these eras and the outcome of these negotiations. The presentation thus sets out to answer two overarching questions: 1) what are the impacts of return upon Portuguese emigrant descendant returnees and where does the return itself leave the returnee in the transnational stratum and in the search for the "self"; 2) how are social networks (re)negotiated and utilized in the post-return era defined by the current economic crisis, taking into consideration tactics of insertion and returnees' transnational positioning? The findings presented will rely on interviews carried out with Portuguese descendant returnees carried out between two time-periods: a first round between 2008 and 2010; a second round, consisting of follow-up interviews, in 2011 and 2012.