A workshop Connecting the Dots between Portugal’s Far Right Populism, Racism, and Xenophobia: Everyday Implications for Racialized Migrants terá lugar no IGOT-ULisboa no dia 27 de junho, a partir das 9h30 na Sala de Conferências Jorge Gaspar. Consulte o programa completo.

This workshop examines the structural and everyday articulation of racial oppression, prejudice, and discrimination in Portugal as experienced by racialized people, with migrant and non-migrant background. Portugal prides itself on the problematic concept of “Lusotropicalism” contending that its population is not prejudiced towards people from its former colonies. Till June 2024, and unlike the rest of Europe, migrants, mostly racialized and coming from the Global South, were instrumentally wooed to fill the labour crisis in low-paying immigrant-niche sectors with easier pathways to legal work or residencies in Portugal. The unprecedented electoral surge of Chega, a far-right populist party led by André Ventura, which captured a substantial share of parliamentary seats in the recently held 2025 national elections, marks a turning point in Portuguese politics. This dramatic outcome reveals a deepening discontent within Portugal’s society about unemployment and a social welfare crisis. This has been mobilized as a discourse that racializes communities and blames them for societal ills and for threatening “native” cultural identity.

The panel emerges from empirical research undertaken by each panellist among different groups of racialized migrants and racialized Portuguese citizens. The findings theorize the intimate and gendered impact of the intersections of far-right populism with Islamophobia, Afrophobia, and racism/ racial prejudice. It connects the dots between structural racism institutionalized through policies and systemic racism experienced daily by racialized people as they engage in the gig economy, agriculture, and/or health care.

O evento é organizado por Reena Kukreja (Queen’s University, Kingston, Canada), José Mapril (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal) e Sofia Aboim (ICS-ULisboa, Portugal).