Thinking health under the perspective of Brazilian immigrants living in Portugal

Abstract

This study aimed at determining the social representations on health and immigrants constructed by Brazilians. Samples consisted of one hundred Brazilian male and female immigrants living in Lisbon, Portugal. The technique of free evocation, which uses as inductive words “health” and “immigrant”, were used for data collection. Data were submitted to analyses using the software EVOC (Ensemble de Programmes Permettant L’analyse des Évocations). We detected the presence of the psycho-affective and social-interaction dimensions as to health, whereas as to “immigrant”, individuals related it to a difficult experience that generates pain, prejudice, and homesickness, where the love for the family are the reason to immigrate to obtain better life conditions.