Political interculturalism and the integration of immigrants: the Portuguese case
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.5007/2175-7984.2015v14n30p56Abstract
The immigrant integration policy aims to promote social cohesion and to forge a sense of
identification with the national community, by establishing bonds of solidarity and the sharing of
values and practices among all residents in the territory. In Portugal, in recent years, interculturalism
has been presented as one of the structuring principles of such a policy. In this article, we intend to
show how this policy is reflected in the two first Plans for the Integration of Immigrants, selecting
and assessing the measures more directly related to promoting interculturality. We found that
the vast majority of measures announced as being intercultural in both documents aims to show
the existing cultural diversity and enable the public administration to deal with diversity. While
these measures are important to promote and facilitate the integration of immigrants, they are
nevertheless not enough to show the intercultural approach of the Portuguese integration policy.
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