Exploring the lives of migrants in Lisbon

(And the feelings generated by writing about them)

Portugal in general, and Lisbon in particular, are having something of a moment. Tourists, businesses and ‘expats’ are flocking to the country for its beaches, food, and apparent stability compared to much of the rest of the EU.

At the same time, and with much less fanfare, the number of eonomic migrants is increasing too. Portugal’s population is aging, many of its youngest still leave to try their hand abroad. And so the government has gradually relaxed rules, not always in a sraightforward way, to encourage more migrants to try their chance here.

This is a space about these people, and this other ‘moment’ in Portugal.

There will be:

• stories of individuals who came to Portugal, why and how they are doing

• investigation: how do you find a job or housing, in a system where rules aren’t clear?

• analysis: how many migrants are actually here? who are the Portuguese populists and what do they think of the changes around them?

And there will also be personal reflections on what it means to me, a brown skinned British citizen, to witness these stories.

I hope you’ll enjoy it, and respond, even negatively: writing about migrants, and centering their stories, while also teasing out my own relationship to race will be tricky. I expect to get things wrong, and hopefully learn and improve.