Portugal has been virtually absent from the vibrant and international debate on the roots and determinants of health inequalities in the 19th and 20th centuries. The few studies conducted on death causes have been based on aggregated data with small territorial disaggregation, focusing on the period after 1920, when the ICD was already implemented. Therefore, we lack a micro-analytical and intergenerational approach to understand to what extent – and how far – individuals' geographic origin, their socio-economic conditions, and public health policies contributed to their longevity. The city of Oporto, a major port city in northern Portugal, is particularly interesting due to its migratory history, with individuals returning from various parts of the Portuguese empire (notably the so-called "Brazilians"), as well as foreigners, such as Galicians and even the British. Furthermore, it is a relevant case study in the European context, as it sheds light on the process of consolidation and development of Liberalism in more peripheral countries (such as Portugal, Romania or Spain, only to mention a few), whose gap with leading countries began to widen precisely in the second half of the 19th century. The empirical data collected for this project is based on burial certificates available online for the entire Porto municipality. These are nominative sources with information on individuals' parentage, profession, place of birth, place of death, and cause of death (coded according to official nomenclatures), totaling approximately 4 million deaths. A team formed by researchers from the GREAT LEAP network affiliated in Portugal and a group of undergraduate and graduate students from Iscte's history program is already engaged in this exciting research.    

From 2005 onwards, Portugal registered an intensification of emigration flows that produced important demographic, social and economic impacts in the country. With the easing of the crisis, the return to growth and new crises in the EU (Brexit, anti-immigrant movements in several countries, etc.), there is the expectation of returns movements to Portugal. These returns may contribute to the demographic and economic development of the country, due to investments that can be made and, also, due to the transfer of knowledge accumulated during migrants? residence abroad. This study aims to study the return of Portuguese emigrants, with a focus on some of the main destination countries in recent years, such as the United Kingdom, France and Luxembourg, in order to be able to take into consideration the influence of contextual differences on the decision-making process and on the effective experience of return. Complementing the project REMIGR [2014- 2016], the study will focus on the expectations and experiences of return of migrants, the role of host society integration for the decision/predisposition to return, the development of different forms of mobility between countries of origin and destination and the potential of migrants (effective or potential returnees) for the promotion of regional development in the areas of origin of emigrants, issues which have received little attention in the analysis of Portuguese emigration, despite emigration has always been accompanied by some return flows. In general terms the project studies Portuguese emigrants and returned emigrants, regardless of level of qualification, seeking to answer the following questions: a) which factors influence migrants return intentions and decisions? b) how the increasing forms of circulation allow to implement and/or delay the return projects and contribute to support the development of transnational practices between the country of destination and of origin? c) what is the potential for the mobil...

This project seeks to understand the size and characteristics of the new emigration, especially considering the relationships that migrants maintain with their country of origin. In order to better operationalize the research, some restrictions will be adopted.