Introduction

The first Portuguese immigrants began arriving in the US in the middle of the 19th century and settled in Boston, Massachusetts (Baganha, 1991), as well as in Springfield, Illinois (Allers and Gochanour, 1984). However, according to some historical sources (Social Welfare History Project, n.d.), Portuguese immigrants were also among the nationalities present at the Hull-House settlement, established in Chicago in 1889 by Jane Addams and her colleagues. Reports of the Portuguese presence at one of the first, and certainly the most prominent, settlement houses in the US, was the impetus for this research effort to track the Portuguese settlement experience. Due to the Francophone genealogy of Portuguese social work, this journey begins by initially focusing on the French settlement experience, which offers an opportunity to explore the unique features of this experience. Thus, apart from the Portuguese settlements, the chapter examines both the French maisons sociales and the Addams’ Hull-House sociohistorical contexts and approaches as a contribution to the study of the Settlement House Movement through a transnational perspective.

This chapter adopts as its analytical lens – residence, research and reform – the paradigmatic 3Rs of the Settlement Movement (Trattner, 1994: 171), as a key to the comparison of these international experiences. It draws on the author's previous research (Branco, 2016, 2019), but also on the work of Williams and MacLean, which “presents a collective case studies approach … of some of the most prominent Progressive Era settlements” (2015: 16), and which underscores the impact of Hull-House on the Settlement House Movement and its centrality to social work and social reform. With regard to the Settlement Movement in Portugal, the focus will be on the ‘centres sociaux’ that developed in that country, under the Francophone inspiration along with other possible influences.

Hull-House: residence, research and reform

The 3Rs are a perfect synthesis of the praxis and expression of the Settlement Movement philosophy in the US.

Residence