European countries are highly affected by immigration. In addition to the traditional movement of people to Europe from the less economically developed and politically insecure south-eastern parts of the world, the fall of the Iron Curtain facilitated the westbound movement of economic migrants within Europe, namely from poorer East to affluent West Europe (Morawska 2001). The number of Eastern European immigrants to Portugal has grown significantly in the last decade. While the experiences of earlier waves of immigrants from the former colonies have been central to the discourse of migration to Portugal, the rapid but relatively recent growth of Eastern European immigrants has yet received insufficient attention, but the interest is growing (Peixoto 2009). Ukrainian immigrants, in particular, have been the largest immigrant group on stay permits in the country between 2001-2003, as well as those more recently benefiting from the Portuguese family unification law (Teixera and Albuquerque 2007). The overarching aim of this exploratory postdoctoral study is to examine the process of immigrant youth citizenship identity construction by focusing on the perspectives and experiences of an under-researched group of Ukrainian schoolchildren in Portugal. The study refers to the associational dimension of citizenship in terms of membership, social positioning, cultural assumptions, belonging and identity (Webner and Yuval-Davies 1999; Lewis 2004).

Within the general context of recent Eastern European (incl. Ukrainian) immigration to Portugal and in line with the effort of migration studies to attend to the experiences and perspectives of young migrants and to embrace the micro-scale methodologies (Dobson 2009), this study prioritises the individual level by focusing on young people, their agency and subjectivities. The study is based in one Ukrainian Saturday school in Lisbon. Research participants are first generation migrant young people between the ages of 12-14 years old. The research approach could be described as participatory: entailing efforts to consult young people regarding the direction of the research process, access their voices in as unmediated manner as possible, provide youth with the possibility to construct visual (in addition to verbal) representations of their lives. The methods of data collection with youth include participant observations, group discussions, individual interviews, photography and photo-elicitation.

In addition to outlining the social and cultural location and representation of this migrant group in Portugal, this paper will present the preliminary results of the ongoing research with youth. The main focus of the paper is on the theme ‘resources and spaces of identity’, which explores the resources young people draw on in constructing their new citizenship identities as well as spaces (i.e. homes, schools, streets, etc) that become particularly significant in their identity formation, processes of inclusion and exclusion. The implications of the present research for citizenship education in Portugal and other European migration societies are also reflected upon.