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The austerity regime implemented in Portugal to face the financial and economic crisis caused readjustments in the country's productive structure and labour market with an impact on immigrants' lifeworlds. This article aims at analysing the consequences of the crisis in the lives of third-country nationals living in Portugal, reflecting particularly on the impact on their integration process, understood as economic incorporation, in a context of increasing work precariousness. Special attention will be given to the resilience of immigrants visible in their responses to the labour market constraints, namely through their choices of geographic (im)mobility and also the implementation of strategies to 'normalise' their lives. Starting with a brief reference to the meaning of integration in Portugal in a context of crisis, we draw on data from two research projects, arguing that despite the increased hardship, the resilience of foreign workers is considerable and they still think it is worth coming to Portugal. The strategies adopted may be either in situ or implying onward migration, resulting from the combination of context opportunities and individual agency. Factors like legal status, education and having relatives abroad play a moderate role in this process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The unfavourable evolution of social conditions and housing patterns of immigrants in contemporary Southern Europe challenges the association of social inclusion and integration with spatial dispersal. Recent housing and socio-urban changes, involving limited public-housing production and few opportunities for self-build housing, have triggered additional processes of socio-residential exclusion associated with peripheralisation, de-segregation in the context of urban renewal, and gentrification. Finally, the strength and specific composition of the major waves of immigrants in the 1990s and early 2000s have also contributed to narrowing migrants' access to the housing market and promoting distinctive patterns of settlement. Focusing on the six metropolises of Lisbon, Madrid, Barcelona, Turin, Milan and Rome, we explore patterns and dynamics of socio-ethnic segregation in Southern Europe, paying particular attention to the processes of marginalisation through dispersal, and questioning the orthodox association between residential de-segregation and social inclusion. Despite data limitations and the fact that these examples may not be representative of all Southern European metropolises, this paper aims at a more accurate interpretation of the contemporary socio-urban dynamics associated with the presence of immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is analysis of the changing socio-spatial situation of immigrants in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area during the 1990s. The theoretical framing of this analysis is built on several bases: the metropolitan area's particular urban history and planning processes; the post-industrial features which are common to Southern European cities; the nature of the welfare system; and the specific characteristics of the Lisbon housing market. The analysis explores the links between the circumstances of different immigrant groups and contemporary urban social processes, such as polarisation, exclusion, residential segregation, and fragmentation of the urban social fabric. Regarding differential effects and processes across immigrant groups, two dimensions of comparison can be stressed: the distinction between the labour immigrants, mainly from Portuguese-speaking African countries, and highly-qualified migrants from the European Union; and a further distinction between the 'first wave' of labour migrants from Africa, whose numbers grew sharply after the decolonisation process of the mid-1970s, and whose migration still continues, and a 'second wave' made up mainly of East Europeans, Brazilians and some Asian groups, who arrived after 1999-2000. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]