As the pioneering work of Koser (2003) demonstrates, transnationalism affects migrant economic behaviour, not only in the host country but also in the origin country. However, an increasing number of individuals now migrate to Europe, maintaining important ties both with their countries of origin and with migrants living elsewhere. In migration and development studies, the family is mostly considered as a homogeneous unit of analysis with members living in the same geographical location, overlooking those living in other countries. Nevertheless, scholars on transnationalism recognise how people, goods, money and ideas move across national boundaries engendering changes in relationships between individuals and institutions like families, households, political affiliations fostering new and diverse forms of social and economic integration within contemporary transnational society. Increasingly stringent European migration laws restricting entry and the opening up of particular economic sectors to migrant women have led to families ‘splitting' with at least one member migrating while others remain. Researching transnational living presents new research challenges (Bryceson and Vuorela 2002).This project aims to analyse the gender perspectives of human behaviour of individuals in movement and repercussions on family ties and their participation in the development of the countries involved. Human behaviour differs in terms of gender and development in accordance with the prevailing social organizational and political culture. To capture the gender specificity of individuals in movement, we shall interview the target group both in the countries of origin and in Portugal. As development studies show, research on the effects of migration migrant-sending country development has mostly focused on the economic effects of household remittances (Carling 2005, Guarnizo, 2006). This project seeks to enlarge this by analysing the effects migration has on individuals and their families. This focus is based on the assumption that the impacts on individuals essentially establish the long-term effects migration also brings for source country development. The choice of countries of origin is grounded in the academic trajectories of the PI and other team members. Previous projects on gender roles in migratory contexts from African countries (Grassi 2003, 2006, 2007b, Grassi and Evora 2007, Nascimento, 2007b) point to differentiated conditions in migration access in the origin society as well as a differentiated scope of employment integration in Portugal. The PI and other team members have already explored theoretical approaches related to migration, multicultural contexts and gender relations in Lusophone African contexts (Grassi and Evora 2007; Nascimento 2007b; Gomes 2008; Frias 2006) tackling the issue of transnationalism from different disciplinary perspectives, questioning how the focus on transnational living, integration and relationships affect the important historical links between Portugal and its former colonies in terms of identities, culture, political affiliation and development. Economic migrations from PALOP to Portugal are bound up in the historical, identity and symbolical ties ongoing since the 16th century. The presence in the team of two specialist historians is central to the analysis (Nascimento 2007b and 2008; Gomes 2008). The qualitative methodology adopted, with recourse to extended interviews and the collection of life stories, will result in information of substantive relevance to the identification of core dimensions to gender and family dynamics as impacting on both migration access conditions and on employment access in Portugal. The indicators resulting from this analysis may subsequently be applied as points of reference for the definition of core variables for broader quantitative studies on gender differences. The project will provides an empirical ground for the organization of a theoretical International Seminar in Lisbon, already granted by the European Science Foundation (ESF Exploratory Workshop), to launch the "Transnational Living Network" combining the expertise of researchers from different scientific areas derived from tackling these issues from different perspectives and methodologies. The multi-disciplinary nature of the project team, in addition to the inclusion of young researchers, endows this with an additional teaching/learning facet ensuring the very best circumstances for the study of this complex and multi-dimensional project theme.