Abstract
Immigration and its impact on societies is one of the main social challenges of the 21st century. Both immigrants and the host society choose different acculturation strategies. To analyze the perceptions that both immigrants and their host society have on questions regarding acculturation, discrimination, threat, integration, or linguistic barriers in Portugal, we carried out a qualitative study. We interviewed forty people (20 immigrants of different nationalities and 20 Portuguese) and results show that both immigrants and the host society choose integration. The Portuguese don't consider themselves to be discriminatory people, and in general, immigrants feel integrated in Portugal. To sum up, Portugal seems to be a welcoming country, open to cultural diversity; a place where immigrants feel well and don't intend to leave.
Keywords:
immigration; host society; acculturation; discrimination
