This paper presents a comparative study about the perceptions of socio-professional characteristics (positive and negative) from ordinary workers and African workers from Portuguese expression countries (PALOP) perceived by those immigrants and also by Caucasian Portugueses working with them, a sample of almost 200 workers from Lisbon and surroundings, 100 Caucasian and 100 Afro-Descendents, from both genders. A specific questionnaire was built (based on previous interviews), collectively and individually administered in the subjects work place. The results allow one to conclude the need to transform and improve the immigrants socio-labor conditions, by making their conditions of legalization and permanence in Portugal quicker and transparent, and also by promoting the responsibility of employers in particular and of citizens in general for denouncing the situations of exploration and illegality, due to their social integration should be a signal of conviviality and of respect instead of assimilation.
Immigrants; PALOP; Perceptions; Socio-professional Characteristics; Ethnic Group