Sofia Gaspar
Sofia Gaspar (PhD in Sociology) is Senior Researcher at CIES-Iscte, Lisbon University Institute, Portugal. She has coordinated several projects on bi-national couples, transnational families and Chinese immigrants, and she has vastly published on this field. Her publications include the co-edition of the books The Presence of China and the Chinese Diaspora in Portugal and Portuguese-Speaking Territories (2021, Brill) and Southeast Asian Migration: People on the Move in Search of Work, Refuge and Belonging (Sussex Academic Press, 2015), and also papers in peer-review journals (International Migration; Population, Space and Place; Journal of Chinese Overseas, and Portuguese Journal of Social Science). She is co-coordinating the Thematic Section Migrations, Ethnicity and Racism of the Portuguese Sociological Association (APS), and she is co-organizing the workshops Meetings on Chinese Studies and Seminar of Cultural Diversity in Contemporary Families, both at Cies-Iscte. She is also member of several international networks: CHERN – China in Europe Research Network (COST Action), CERPE – China Europe Platform on Migration, PRIMOB – Privileged Mobilities: Local Impacts, Belonging and Citizenship (IMISCOE), DIVCULT – Superdiversity, Migration and Cultural Change (IMISCOE) and Lifestyle Migration Hub.
Between 2023 and 2026, she served as the local coordinator of ISCTE’s team for the ASPirE project, Decision Making of Aspiring (Re)Migrants to/within the EU: The Case of Labour Market-Leading Migrations from Asia, funded by Horizon Europe.
Her current research focuses on skilled and privileged migration, talent attraction and retention policies, investment migration, and the social integration of the descendants of immigrants, with particular attention to the Chinese community in Portugal and across Europe.