Abstract

Focusing on the migrant heritage of communities with Indian background in Portugal, this project aims to provide cultural objects and practices with new readings and interpretations. From the intersection between anthropology and museology, an exhibition project will result from participatory and inclusive methodologies between the museum, the researcher and the members of the communities represented. In this context, the purpose of the exhibition will be, on the one hand, to call communities to represent themselves and, on the other, to reflect on the fluidity of borders and on the complexity of the identity processes of contemporary societies, making use of museums as privileged spaces of diversity and inclusion. Furthermore, the present research project also addresses issues of integration of South Asian migrant groups, particularly those most recently established in Portugal, originally from the Indian region of Punjab. It intendeds to define the main obstacles to social integration, to detect the most affected members (women, for example) and also to propose different forms of access to the main channels of integration, such as the Portuguese language, the health care system and the labor market.