Paper short abstract:

This paper aims at analysing the status of Central Asian migrant communities in Portugal (mainly Uzbekistanis and Kazakhstanis) in the context of the perception of their ethnic and socio-cultural identity by the Portuguese society.

Paper long abstract:

«That's why some of the Ukrainians are Muslims!» claimed a city councilor of a small portuguese town, some one hundred kms. north of Lisbon, when I was trying to explain him that the region, already a known destination of the Ukrainian migration to Portugal since the late 90s, had also received several tens of Central Asian migrants from Uzbekistan. Fifteen or even ten years ago, for him as for most Portuguese, the distinction between people from different post-soviet countries - Georgians or Kazakhs, Russians or Moldovans - was far from obvious; even ethnic Koreans coming from Kazakhstan were once identified as «Chinese from Russia», and I keep a copy of an email from a local administration office mentioning the arrival of «citizens of Azerbistan». They were all «Imigrantes de Leste», «Eastern Immigrants» - and they were all perceived as White, European Immigrants, clearly separated from the two other groups of migrants the Portuguese society was used to: the Black Africans coming from the former Portuguese colonies (mainly Cape Verde and Angola), and the Brazilians who were then crossing the Atlantic by tens of thousands; the leader of a right-wing group even greeted their arrival with the words: »At last, we are receiving beautiful immigrants!»...