By Ricardo Almendra, University of Coimbra
Portugal is often imagined as a country of mild winters and sunny coastlines. Although this is not wrong, several years working with mobility students and researchers from north and central European countries have shown me how dangerous this stereotype can be. The complain “This was not what I was expecting from a Mediterranean country” is often followed by an expression on how cold it is or how difficult it is to shake the cold off. This is the challenge our research addresses.
Of course, the scientific community has long been reporting the difficulties in keeping houses adequately warm during winter and the fragilities of the Portuguese housing offer and it is with no surprise that foreign may feel the bitterness of cold exposure in Portugal. When the opportunity to engage with Eastern European and Russian migrants living in Portugal appeared we realized that the conditions to study this phenomenon were gathered. This research analysis the factors associated with the inability to keep home adequately warm during winter between migrants from eastern Europe and Russia living in Portugal and, when possible, compare these factors with those affecting the Portuguese population. We used survey data collected specifically for this research and, where possible, compared migrants’ experiences with those of the Portuguese population using EU statistics on income and living conditions data.
A geographical perspective
A geographical perspective helps us move beyond the idea that warmth is simply a matter of outdoor temperature or individual preference. Our individual and collective background is a key factor shaping our thermal expectations, playing a crucial role to what which one of us considers “feeling warm enough”. Different cultural backgrounds are associated with different behaviours and migrants are reported to keep ‘practice memories’, including embodied and socially shared routines and understandings formed in their countries of origin, shaping how they engage with domestic energy practices including habits and expectations about comfort, efficiency and resource use that persist when exposed to other climatic conditions and living in different building infrastructures.
Beyond usual risk factors often mentioned in the literature such as individual characteristics (e.g. age, sex), socioeconomic and material conditions (e.g. education, housing overburden and housing conditions) affecting almost equally both surveyed migrants and Portuguese individuals, our results also show that 77% of eastern migrants consider indoor thermal conditions in Portugal to be worse or much worse than in their home countries. While simply using a heating system is not a significant predictor of thermal comfort, behaviours and perceptions related to energy provide a more accurate image. This aligns with previous works highlighting how energy deprivation is embedded in wider socio-spatial and institutional conditions shaping everyday life.
Coping strategies
Migrants reporting being cautious about their energy consumption are significantly more likely to experience difficulty maintaining adequate indoor warmth in winter suggesting that energy-saving behaviour should not be read simply as rational household management as households’ capacity to change energy practices is deeply shaped by money, housing conditions, tenure, and wider infrastructures of support. Similarly, dissatisfaction with heating systems is strongly associated with thermal discomfort .
In response, many migrants adopt alternative strategies to cope with the cold. The most common include using blankets (64%), drinking warm beverages (37%), engaging in physical activity (28%), and using hot water bottles (16%). Nearly half (46%) report combining two or more of these strategies. Interestingly, those who do not rely on such coping mechanisms are significantly less likely to report poor indoor thermal conditions, suggesting that these practices often signal underlying vulnerabilities.
Energy use and satisfaction
Although a high proportion of migrants (87%) report using heating systems, only 25% are satisfied with them. The main concerns relate to high costs (53%), low heating capacity (42%), and maintenance issues (6%). This contrasts with census data indicating that around 30% of the Portuguese population does not use any form of heating, highlighting different patterns of energy use.
These results may not be exclusively the consequence of poorer insulated houses or substandard housing conditions felt by the migrants (62% of migrants and 68% of Portuguese population do not report signs of leaking roof, damp walls, floors or foundation or rot in window frames or floor), but also the result of cultural and psychological mismatches in thermal expectations. Although originating from colder climates, many Eastern European and Russian migrants likely carry higher baseline expectations of indoor warmth. This is reflected in migrants’ reported dissatisfaction with indoor thermal conditions in Portugal, suggesting higher expectations for indoor thermal comfort.
Three lessons from cold homes in warm countries
- First, warm countries can have cold homes. Portugal’s reputation as a sunny country does not mean that indoor warmth is guaranteed in winter.
- Second, energy vulnerability is geographically and culturally situated. Migrants compare present homes with previous homes, heating systems and winter routines. Their discomfort reveals how warmth is shaped by both material conditions and thermal expectations.
- Third, policies ignoring Portuguese household conditions risk missing important differences in how people understand, use and experience domestic energy.
Feeling cold in a supposedly warm country is not a paradox. It is a reminder that climate, housing and energy justice are experienced indoors: through walls, bills, heating systems, habits and expectations.
About the author: Ricardo Almendra, PhD in Human Geography is an invited assistant Professor at the Department of Geography and Tourism of the Coimbra University, researcher at Centre of Studies on Geography and Spatial Planning and member of GLADE Virtual Institute EC2U alliance of Universities.
Suggested further reading
Almendra, R., and M. Melnikova. (2026) “Eastern Migrants’ Winter Indoor Thermal Discomfort in Portugal: A Comparative Study Between the Portuguese Population and Migrants From Eastern Europe and Russia Living in Portugal.” Geo: Geography and Environment. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1002/geo2.70065.
Petsou, A., F. Caprotti, and P. Parikh. (2026) “Geographies of Unreliable Power: Energy Insecurity and Everyday Life in a South African Informal Settlement.” The Geographical Journal. Available from: https://doi.org/10.1111/geoj.70097.
How to cite
Almendra, R. (2026, June) Feeling cold in a warm summer country: Eastern Migrants’ living in Portugal. Geography Directions. https://doi.org/10.55203/QWDO8464
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