Graduate Student, History
Thesis Title: The Portuguese emigration: legal and illegal networks in Viseu’s region (1870-1905)
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José Manuel Sobral
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About
The current thesis aims to study the composition of national emigration networks, either impersonally organized and those that fall into a legal framework or not, or links that are based on close relationships (family, neighborhood and friendship) in a regional context In this case the region of Viseu. It is not only to illustrate how the information is being spread but also to understand what is the role that each actors involved in the process (administrative, political, diplomatic, church members and agents of emigration), had in boosting or obstruction the phenomenon. There will be a mismatch between government directives and their actual implementation by local government officials? What are the mechanisms that allowed the emigrants to escape the dictates of legislation? In proximity networks I seek to answer the following questions: How do they insert in the family plot? - which are family and individual strategies? What are their results? How these emigration networks will reduce the cost of emigration?
The choice of the Viseu region as the focus of research is justified on the one hand by the massive numbers of migrants who will leave the region during the nineteenth century, especially since 1872. In the 1880s these flows grow so that they approximate quantitatively the district of Porto and in the early twentieth century their numbers surpass even that district. Thus it is understood that this study will be initiated in 1870 (the period that precedes the mass and allows us to compare decades) and covering the late nineteenth century until 1905, when there were the first gaps in the Viseu’s District Archive, in particular in the records of passports.
Due to the markedly regional phenomenon, such an approach "enables the exploration of these issues with a considerable minutiae - microscopic, so to speak (...) "(Elias, 2000: 30). It is intended, therefore, by studying the causes of emigration in Viseu and the development of a portrait of their emigrants to contribute to the construction of general propositions about the Portuguese emigration.
The region of Viseu represents a specificity and uniqueness, inserted in a particular social organization more broadly, with whom it associates. It means that our study although it has a regional dimension should also discuss the proposals and discussions on migration at the national level. But because this phenomenon is not something specifically Portuguese and occurred in several European countries including Spain, Italy, Germany, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, etc.. there must be an ongoing dialogue with the lived reality internationally (places of origin and host).
Professional Experience:
31.10.2009- 31.06.2010
Researcher in the project "Atlas of Portuguese Migration" at the University ISCTE, Lisbon, Directed by Rui Pena Pires, Fernando Luís Machado, Maria João Vaz, etc..
1.09.2007 –31.10.2009
Research assistant in the project "Elites in the Era of Fascism ...". University - Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS). Directed by António Costa Pinto.
30.11.2006 - ongoing
Research and drafting of texts for na Óbidos Monography. University ISCTE, Lisbon, Directed by Luís Nuno Rodrigues.
01.08.2005 – 30.01.2007
Research and building Web content for the Virtual Museum - Aristides de Sousa Mendes (http://mvasm.sapo.pt/). Directed by António Costa Pinto.
01.11.2004 – 01.02.2006
Research (Biography of the Portuguese King Luís I). Directed by Luís Espinha da Silveira.
30.11.2002- 30.12.2003
Research (Project on the Royal Association of Portuguese Agriculture - RACAP). University - Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS). Directed by Conceição Andrade Martins.
1.11.2002- 30.11.2003
Research (Project Optima Pars). University - Instituto de Ciências Sociais da Universidade de Lisboa (ICS). Directed by Nuno Monteiro.
1.11.2001- 30.10.2003
Research (Free Seminar on the History of Ideas - "Magazines, Ideas and Culture: 1900-1930") and study on the Portuguese magazine "A Vida Portuguesa". University - Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas de Lisboa (FCSH). Directed by Zília Osório de Castro.
1.03.1999- 30.03.2001
Research (Project – The Book). University - Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas de Lisboa (FCSH). Directed by João Luís Lisboa.
1.05.1998- 30.02.2000
Research (Project Popular Piety). University - Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas de Lisboa (FCSH). Directed by Esteves Pereira.
1.03.1998- 30.10.2001
Research for various television programs, books, etc. with Francisco Moita Flores.
