Migration is generally described as a process that is nationally specific and that have
features common to several countries. This has been shown by several authors through
comparative research that compares the migration process of the same immigrant group to
several countries (among others, Engbersen, Snel, & de Boom, 2010) or which scrutinises the
migration realities of different countries (Zimmermann, 2005). Most of these studies are about
geographically near countries, which are part of the same political system (the EU), and that
have an established (albeit differentiated) welfare system. These proximities (geographical, but
also political and social) allowed the authors of these studies to conceptualise the existence of
several migration models or regimes: the southern European model (Baldwin-Edwards, 2012),
the Iberian model of Migration (Malheiros, 2012); the intra-EU mobility regime (Engbersen
et al., 2017). These migratory regimes are intertwined by migrant integration models or by
different approaches to increasingly diverse populations. Although these are often identified
as ‘national models of integration’, they do not fail to integrate the developments that have
been recorded in the last decades in the international contexts in which the countries are
inserted. Throughout the present text, the Portuguese experience in dealing with immigrant
integration is used to reflect on the development of intercultural policies and practices, and
on the role of intercultural mediation.
The article is structured in the following way: in the introductory section we will review the
discussion on interculturalism; in a second section the Portuguese immigration context will
be presented; in a third section the integration of immigrants in the country will be analysed,
given special attention to the development of policies that support immigrants’ integration
process. In the fourth section, the role of intercultural mediation for the integration of
immigrants will be considered.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio