Active civic participation of immigrants in Portugal

Portugal’s historical past strongly influences the composition of the country’s immigrant population. The main third-country foreign nationals in Portugal originate traditionally from Portuguese-speaking African countries (namely Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and S. Tomé e Príncipe) and Brazil. In 2001, a newly created immigrant status entitled “permanence” authorization uncovered a quantitative and a qualitative change in the structure of immigrant population in Portugal. First, there was a quantitative jump from 223.602 foreigners in 2001 to 364.203 regularized foreigners in 2003. Secondly, there was a substantial qualitative shift in the composition of immigrants. The majority of the new immigrants began coming from Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and the Russian Federation. Thus, European countries outside the E.U. zone now rank second (after African countries) in their contribution of individuals to the stocks of immigrant population in Portugal. The differences between the new and traditional immigration flows are visible in the geographical distribution of immigrants and in their insertion into the labour market. While the traditional flows would congregate around the metropolitan area of Lisbon and in the Algarve, the new migratory flows tend to be more geographically dispersed and present in less urbanized areas of Portugal. In terms of insertion in the labour market, although the construction sector is still the most important industry for immigrant labour, Eastern European workers may also be found in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors. The institutional conditions that encourage immigrants’ civic participation are divided at three different levels: the state, the local, and the civil society levels. At the state level, the High Commissioner for Migrations and Ethnic Minorities is the main organizational structure along with a set of interrelated initiatives operating under specific regulatory frameworks, which act as mediators between state officials and the Portuguese civil society, and more specifically, immigrant communities. At the local level, some municipalities created consultative councils and municipal departments aiming at encouraging the participation and representation of interests from immigrant groups and association in local policies. In the civil society sphere, the main actors in Portugal spurring immigrants civic participation are immigrant associations, mainstream associations directed toward immigration topics, and unions. The legal conditions framing immigrants’ access to social housing, education, health, and social security in Portugal are also considered to be positive. Conditions restricting immigrants’ civic participation are mainly normative and include the Portuguese nationality law, the regulations shaping the political participation of immigrants, namely in what concerns their right to vote, and employment regulations restricting immigrants’ access to public administration positions. Part II of the report focuses on the active civic participation of third country immigrants. First, reasons for the lack of research on this issue in Portugal are explained. On the one hand, the recent immigration history and the more urgent needs regarding school and economic integration kept this issue out of the research spotlight. On the other hand, it was just in the beginning of the 1990s that immigrants took the very first steps toward collective mobilisation. Secondly, the literature review of Portuguese bibliography covers research on third country immigrants’ associative movement, research on local authorities’ policies and discussion about ethnic politics and political mobilisation of immigrants in Portugal. As political mobilisation of these groups has been made mainly through ethnic and/or migrant organisations, a brief history of immigrants' associative movement is given. Immigrant associations develop multiple roles, covering the social, the cultural, the economic and the political domains. Political claiming for the regularisation of illegal immigrants has been a permanent and important field of intervention since the mid-1990s. Research results reveal the com5 plex relations between ethnic mobilisation and the set of legal and institutional frameworks developed by local and national governmental authorities targeted to the incorporation of minority groups. Case studies on the Oeiras district and on the Amadora district are then presented. Conclusions underline that the most active immigrant groups are those from Cape Verde and Guinea Bissau, since these groups have constituted a higher number of ethnic associations, give priority to political claiming and present a more politicised discourse. Reflecting on the future of research on civic participation of third country immigrants in Portugal, the authors state that it would be interesting and relevant to compare the Portuguese situation with those of other European countries, with an older immigration history, and analyse how the Portuguese immigrants’ associative movement will be affected by a changing legal framework and the emergence of new opportunities within the set of structures regarding the political participation of minority groups.

A Utilização de Simuladores como Instrumento Pedagógico Estudo de Caso: ISCEE Cabo Verde

Os simuladores representam uma forma de transmissão e difusão do conhecimento, de um modo inovador face ao ensino tradicional das matérias. Esta forma de ensino pretende aplicar os métodos desde há muito utilizados nas ciências experimentais, em outras áreas do saber, onde a experiência laboratorial e o ensaio prático controlado não são possíveis. As ciências económicas e empresariais constituem, pela sua própria natureza, um ambiente propício à utilização de simuladores de ensino, dado que não é possível, ou ainda que eventualmente possível, não desejável, efetuar experiências em ambiente real para treino dos futuros profissionais. Este artigo foca-se na problemática da construção e utilização de simuladores para treino dos profissionais de gestão de empresas e relata um caso de estudo ocorrido no Instituto Superior de Ciências Económicas e Empresariais de Cabo Verde no ano letivo de 2013/2014. Abstract Simulators are an innovative way of knowledge transmission and dissemination when comparing to the traditional subject teaching. This form of education intends to apply the methods that have long been used in experimental sciences to other disciplinessuch as those where the controlled laboratory experiment or practical tests are not possible. The economic and business sciences are, by their very nature, conducive to the use of simulators in teaching, since it is not possible, or not desirable, to make experiments in a real life environment for training purposes. This article focuses on the issue of simulators construction and use whenapplied to the training of business management professionals, and reports a case study occurred at the Institute of Economics and Management of Cape Verde in academic year of 2013/2014.

DIGITAL LIBRARIES IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES

Digital libraries (DL) are seen as a hope to developing countries in their struggle for accessing bibliographic resources, especially in a context where the traditional distribution mechanisms failed tragically. Several difficulties are however faced by these countries to build and use digital libraries, due mainly to its high development costs and to the poor existing ICT resources in these countries. This paper discusses the importance of digital libraries for developing countries and introduces the main challenges they face in building and using such libraries. The current alternatives and major initiatives for making digital information accessible to developing countries are also addressed.

Using Digital and Traditional Libraries in Developing Countries

Given the existing challenges in accessing print-based publications in developing countries, digital libraries are seen as a good alternative. Thus, it is important to understand how such libraries are used in these contexts, especially when compared with the usage of traditional libraries. This paper analyzes and compares the usage of the digital and traditional libraries of the University Jean Piaget of Cape Verde, aiming at understanding the way they are used, and the relation between the access to the existing information resources in these two libraries.