This paper will draw attention to some of the leisure habits of Portuguese young adults living in Amsterdam, specially the ones related to cultural consumption and production practices, in order to explore their importance to the processes of identity management and construction of meaning in the migration context.

Long Abstract

Although the Portuguese migration is not a new phenomenon, recently there is an original flow that stands in relation to previous migration patterns. While these were largely determined by economic constraints, today we are witnessing a parallel movement characterized by societal symbologies that tend to privilege motivations more related to personal achievement and the desire for unique and diverse experiences.There is a considerable amount of Portuguese young adults, middle class and middle to upper education, presently living in European capitals like London, Amsterdam, Barcelona or Berlin and guiding their experiences in these cities from cosmologies related to certain cultures of consumption and, at the same time rejecting stereotyped ways of being a

"Portuguese immigrant". What are the special features of such cultures? What kind of sociability is created through the same? Why do these individuals choose to regulate their world and define their identity in relation to these, instead of a more "traditional", ethnic oriented way?

From the analysis of the relations of some of these young people with the material world, at the level of consumption and cultural production, we intend to seek answers to these questions and try and perceive how these relationships can lead to an understanding of the logic behind their belonging managements. For this we will draw on the findings of an ethnography conducted in Amsterdam, where leisure was the primary source of research.

Comunicação no workshop, "Leisure experience of migrants: shaping free time, shaping identities", no SIEF, aqui.