Paper short abstract:

This paper explores the relationship between Amsterdam’s imageries, the lifestyle aspirations and emplacement realities of Portuguese migrants related to the arts and the creative industries in the city.

Paper long abstract:

The bohemian character of urban life has long constituted a factor of fascination and attraction of people to cities. In the last decades the processes of urban restructuring occurring in certain capitals of the global north and the intensification of mobility have boosted such dynamics, as urban economies and development strategies become more attached to the promotion of culture, creativity and entertainment. Artists and people related to those industries constitute an important part of the population potentially drawn to such hubs, in search of places with alternative lifestyles and favorable to the development of their projects. But while the urban branding rhetoric's produced in municipality's offices welcome the arrival of international creativity, celebrating their diverse and cosmopolitan added value, it becomes important to access what the actual realities of these people are. What are the correspondences and/or mismatches between them and the initial migration expectations? Is the branded urban character fitting to everyone or is it selective and exclusionary? What strategies are undertaken by such migrants to fulfill their aspirations and how are these related to the particular artistic/cultural/creative fields and their economic structure in the city?

By answering these questions this paper will explore and problematize the relationship between urban imageries vs. the lifestyle aspirations and emplacement realities of such migrants. It will do so by looking at the expectations and experiences of migration of Portuguese in the arts and creative/ cultural industries in the city of Amsterdam, while relating them to the cities' branding images.