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This paper serves as an introduction to the dossier "Football and Portuguese emigration" at providing comparative insights into the findings of the international research project Diasbola which analysed the role of football among Portuguese emigrants and luso-descendents in eight diasporic settings. The aim was to qualify football in comparison to other cultural elements which are used by migrants to connect to their country of origin, and in the invention and performance of Portugueseness and community-building processes. We had started with the hypothesis that football, which is a major cultural and social phenomenon in Portuguese society, represents an especially strong element in the emigrant's culture of everyday life and is a crucial point of reference to their origins. Deriving from ethnographic material, results clearly confirm this hypothesis, but counter its somewhat encapsulating connotation: while football in its social formation and its possible functions is shaped by each particular diasporic context, it also provides dynamics which shape such contexts and conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines the ways in which Portuguese migrants connect to their country of origin. How do they re-construct or re-invent elements of their (narrated) "culture of origin" in Hamburg and in other parts of Northern Germany? Based on ethnographic material and a quantitative survey, the findings suggest that alongside the decrease in language skills and participation in Portuguese associations, many elements which had shaped migrant constructions of Portuguese culture in diasporic settings, are losing importance while football identification, consumption and leisure activity seemingly remain important or are even increasing. Football provides a privileged space for performances of Portuguese belonging and (popular) culture while at the same time being a platform for intercultural encounters. The latter also holds true for Portuguese gastronomic establishments, which give space to the development of culinary and linguistically syncretism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the academic literature, as well as in recent political discourse, muslim minorities in Europe are often described as diasporas or transnational communities. Although these concepts do not originate in the teological traditions of Islamic law, and are not used therein, they do reflect the new societal experience of those they describe. This discursive analysis shows that it is (mostly non muslim) researchers and the educated muslim middle-classes who have played key roles in introducing identitarian forms such as "diasporas" and "the transnational". A new generation of muslim European intellectuals have discussed and developed these concepts to encapsulate and analyze the new practices, situations and experiences of different classes, groups and communities, in language which is not teological but secular, and which marks the transition from traditional to modern religion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents an introduction to the topic of the articles in this issue, the effects of the global system of professional soccer on Portugal and the Portuguese-speaking nations of Africa. Portugal is major soccer power in Europe but is forced to export its talented players to the wealthier teams of other European nations. Portugal, also imports players from Africa. Its status as both a buyer and seller in the soccer market makes Portugal a unique part of soccer's economy

The article discusses three distinct historical stages of the Portuguese public life namely pre-de-colonization, de-colonization and post-decolonization. In 2000 the author developed the theory of the marginalization of the phenomenon of the New Islamic Presence in Portuguese public life. With recent developments affecting this whole field, it is time to reassess that theory. The article provides a brief introduction to the context of the Muslim presence in Europe, underlining certain specific aspects of the Portuguese case.

Around 15 million Muslims live in Europe today - approximately 30,000 of them in Portugal. During the last few decades, Muslims in modern Europe have demonstrated remarkable community building and institutionalization processes. That is to say, they have adopted certain European customs and standards, while at the same time retaining religious and cultural customs and standards which differ from those of the dominant culture. This is also true of the Muslims in Portugal. In elaborating on some of the factors that affect the relationship between the Muslim minority and the dominant society, this paper will draw a more detailed picture of the New Islamic Presence in Portugal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An introduction is presented in which the editor discusses various reports within the issue on topics including the contribution of leisure activities to self perception of migrants, the complexity of the meaning of leisure, and the illustration of the meaningfulness of leisure through mobility.