This article describes and analyzes some of the factors that influence the construction of identities of young people in Europe of immigrant origin. The results derive from a European research project entitled "Towards the social construction of a European youth: the experience of inclusion and exclusion in the public sphere of young second-generation migrants" [1] developed between 2006 and 2009 in nine cities across five countries: Spain (Madrid and Barcelona), Italy (Genoa and Rome), Portugal (Lisbon and Porto), France (Metz), Germany (Berlin) and the Netherlands (Utrecht). The first part analyzed the quantitative data collected in the study contexts, comparing the young descendants of immigrants with the native youth, and focuses on the issue of identity as a central subject in the inclusion process of young immigrants. The second part discusses some of the identity markers present in young children of immigrants in Portugal, using ethnographic data collected specifically for the case of young people in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area that focuses on issues of identity, gender and discrimination.
immigrant origin; descendants of immigrants; youth identities; Portugal; Europe