ABSTRACT
This chapter illustrates a case study of the economic impact of returned emigrants and their remittances in three contrasting locations within the country's central region, paying special attention to returnees' investments, consumption patterns and occupational changes as the major means by which regional development processes are affected. The chapter discusses an analysis of the economic behaviour of returned emigrants, refugees and non-migrants in contrasting regions of Central Portugal. Development in Portugal has been spatially as well as sectorally uneven, for particular regions have been differentially affected by an evolving national spatial division of labour and, more generally, greater integration into the international division of labour has tended to exacerbate existing regional inequalities. Emigration has been a feature of Portuguese society for centuries, but there have been particularly significant changes in its scale, character and geographical patterns over the past 30 years.
