Cláudia Pereira holds a PhD in anthropology with a post-doctorate in sociology. She is a Research Fellow and Professor at ISCTE-University Institute of Lisbon (IUL), integrated at the Centre for Research and Studies in Sociology (CIES-IUL). She has focused on linking research, teaching and public policies.

Previously she did the Erasmus programme during her undergraduate degree at Vrije Universiteit in the Netherlands and was a Visiting Scholar during her PhD at Brown University in the USA. Claudia was the co-coordinator for the international Master’s degree Erasmus Mundus in Social Work with Family and Children and a guest lecturer at the partner universities, i.e., the University of Gothenburg, the University of Makerere and the University of Stavanger.

Pereira is the executive coordinator of the Emigration Observatory (OEm) Portugal, which carries out statistical research on the Portuguese in all countries. Among other activities, the OEm team is responsible for the Yearly Statistical Report on Portuguese Emigration produced for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, for presentation to the Assembly of the Republic.

Cláudia carried out ethnographic research in India, among Catholic Goans and Hindus, and in England, among Portuguese nurses in London. This research resulted in articles and books, including, Religious dances and tourism: perceptions of the “tribal” as the repository of the traditional in Goa, India, and in Springer/IMISCOE, New and Old Routes of Portuguese Emigration. Uncertain Futures at the Periphery of Europe. 

She is an expert on migration on capacity-building projects for governments of countries outside the European Union, such as Jordan and Togo, through the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD), European Commission (EC). She is an evaluator of European applications (COST and Marie Curie). 

She participates in research-action, migration and humanitarian action projects, with international and national funding. She coordinated the one on Nepalese immigration in agriculture. One of the results is the paper in co-authorship, "‘If you don't migrate, you're a nobody’: Migration recruitment networks and experiences of Nepalese farm workers in Portugal".

She was the State Secretary for Integration and Migration, at the 22nd Constitutional Government. In this position, with her team and in cooperation with other governmental areas and public institutes, she removed obstacles in the Portuguese language learning courses by creating the Ordinance for the courses of Portuguese Host Language. For the first time, foreigners and asylum seekers awaiting the documentation were able to learn Portuguese. She created the Integrar Valoriza Network, with more than 50 municipalities, to strengthen the articulation between public administration and municipal councils in integration policies. She has dynamized networking in government and public administration for the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration, in which Portugal was awarded as a "Champion Country" by UN-OIM. She also contributed to the Law of the Citizen Card for People with no Fixed Address in Portugal, for homeless people and nomadic Portuguese Roma, which facilitated access to health care, housing, training and employment, i.e. to equal opportunities. In the area of refugees implemented the Unified Operational Group now ensures cooperation and coordination among the various state actors. Together with her team, she coordinated the task force for the first humanitarian emergency hosting in the country of people from Afghanistan and later from Ukraine.

Claudia assumes coordination roles that relate to research, lecturing and public policy.  She is the President of the IPPS-Iscte, Social Public Policy Institute. Cláudia co-coordinates the Thematic Line of CIES, "Migration, Mobility and Ethnicity", and is a member of the executive committee and co-coordinator of the Thematic Line "Global Governance" of the Associated Laboratory, SocioDigital Lab for Public Policy.