Cova da Moura: inmigración caboverdiana y asociacionismo en la periferia de Lisboa.

The association Moinho da Juventude has organized Cape Verdean immigrants in Cova da Moura during the last thirty years. In this district of the Lisbon outskirts, which is seriously affected by poverty and social exclusion, the association has managed to accumulate a strong reputation among the neighbors, to occupy a central place in their relations and alsoto mediate their interests and demands towards the whole society. In this paper we investigate the factors that explain the success of this peculiar experience of immigrant associationism. We analyze the development of this organization, its relations with the neighbors and the neighborhood itself from the mid seventies until today. Based on ethnographic data we go through the major changes and continuities that took place in the neighborhood, contextualizing the different roles played by the association in every moment. This way, we propose a longitudinal approach to the associative process, and stress the importance of framing associative practices of immigrants in its socio-historical context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]