Performing Criminality: Immigration and Integration in Foreign Land and Fado Blues

Abstract

The number of legal foreigners in Portugal doubled between 2000 and 2002 due to a combination of accelerated immigration and the Portuguese government’s legalization initiatives that granted “stay” permits to several hundred thousand aliens in the country. The increase in legal migration leading up to the turn of the twenty-first century, however, was accompanied by equally significant increases in irregular immigration, including various forms of trafficking and smuggling (Peixoto 2008: 68). As opposed to trafficking, in which exploitation of human rights is central, smuggling involves a different degree of victimization, as it generally refers to consensual illegal entry. In fact, since smuggling overlaps with regular migration, in numerous cases it is the immigrants themselves who seek out the smugglers’ assistance (Peixoto 2008: 66, Schrover et al. 2008: 11).