IN-PERSON Lisbon Livable Cities. Section B

Abstract

Portugal’s migration landscape has shifted under increasingly restrictive immigration policies, exacerbating the barriers migrant women from Latin America face in their pursuit of belonging. Despite state and civil society initiatives aimed at inclusion, institutional gaps, discrimination, and socio-economic precarity continue to hinder their integration. This research explores how migrant women navigate these challenges through digital platforms and grassroots solidarity, positioning their agency at the center of community-building efforts. Drawing on qualitative research, including interviews with migrant women and migrant-serving organizations in Porto, this study examines how online “mobile commons” facilitate mutual care, support, and collective resistance. Migrant women leverage digital networks to access resources, share information, and engage in activism, though barriers such as digital literacy, legal status, and socio-economic stratification influence their access. Intersectionality provides a critical lens to analyze how factors such as class, nationality, race, and language shape women’s experiences of inclusion and exclusion. Findings reveal that many migrant women, even those proficient in Portuguese and employed in local economies, report limited social integration outside of their own migrant networks. While some engage with NGOs, their primary belonging emerges through self-organized digital and in-person communities. This research underscores the importance of migrant-led solidarity and horizontal solidarity in fostering alternative forms of belonging, challenging top-down integration frameworks. By foregrounding migrant women’s agency in negotiating inclusion, this study contributes to critical migration scholarship on digital activism, gendered solidarity, and community-building in contexts of exclusion.