Paper short abstract:

Replicating a multi-sited ethnography of the circular migration of Portuguese construction workers to Spain offers some lessons on the uses of ethnographic «revisits». The authors, which have also other sociological revisits, discuss the contributions of this approach to social research.

Paper long abstract:

During the height of the crisis, large numbers of construction workers from the Northwestern region of Portugal, where traditional industries were especially exposed to the negative business cycle, adopted patterns of circular migration towards Spain, in search of an alternative to the pervasive consequences of the turmoil in the Portuguese construction sector. This migration, albeit almost invisible to official statistical records, had very tangible impacts on local economies - and in the lives of these workers. To grasp the social impacts of this migratory movements, a multi-sited observation of the places of origin (local communities in the Vale do Sousa area) and the places of destiny of these workers (namely in O Carballino, Galicia, Spain) was put forward. Years after, a travel in time complemented this travel in space. When these migrations seemed to wither, returning to these places, and replicating the ethnography in a short cycle, provided the opportunity to develop an account on the impact of global historical transformations and to review the initial interpretations. Profiting from other sociological revisits done by the authors (Pinto & Queirós, 2010; Monteiro, 2017), this paper will present and discuss some of the main challenges and contributions that can be brought by this kind of approach to social research.