Convictions in Transit: Political Ideologies and Migrant Engagement Between Brazil and Europe

This paper introduces the conceptual and methodological foundations of Convictions in Transit (CiT), an MSCA Global Fellowship project investigating how political ideologies are sustained, transformed, or contested among Brazilian migrants in Europe. While migration research often focuses on integration, citizenship, or participation, this project foregrounds ideological continuity and change as central to migrant political subjectivities. Drawing on early-stage field design, digital ethnographic exploration, and collaboration with research partners in Brazil, the paper examines how religious networks, family ties, and digital communication channels (e.g., WhatsApp) mediate political resocialization in diaspora. It focuses particularly on the ways in which support for or resistance to illiberal populist movements—such as Bolsonarism—are reinterpreted or reactivated within migrant communities in cities like Lisbon, Barcelona, and London. While still in its early stages, the project offers a timely intervention into debates on diaspora politics, representation and democracy by centering ideology as a key axis of migrant political life. It challenges binaries such as integration vs. alienation or democrat vs. authoritarian by examining how migrants actively navigate ideological landscapes shaped by religion, media, and digital networks. The paper proposes a framework for studying political resocialization in exile and invites feedback on its comparative and methodological direction.