Cláudia Pereira was born in 1978, in Germany, and lived in Amoreira de Óbidos until she was 18 years old. She currently lives in Lisbon.
She has a PhD in anthropology from ISCTE - Instituto Universitário de Lisboa and did her post-doctoral studies in sociology in the same university.
She is a member of the Sociology Research and Studies Centre and was executive coordinator of the Emigration Observatory from 2017 to 2019. The Emigration Observatory has been responsible for the Statistical Report on Portuguese Emigration, produced annually for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Cláudia Pereira conducted research on the financial crisis and qualified Portuguese emigration to London and published the book "Broken Lives. Portuguese Nurses Abroad". She previously produced qualitative and ethnographic research in Goa, India, on Catholic and Hindu castes and tribes.
She coordinated a project on Nepalese immigration in agriculture in Portugal and labour exploitation in the Audax IUL entrepreneurship centre, financed by the High Commissioner for Migration.
She was director of the Post-Graduation in Humanitarian Action at ISCTE-IUL and a representative of CIES-IUL at IMISCOE, a network of excellence of migration researchers and co-coordinated the Migra Network, an international network of researchers and those responsible for public migration policies.
She has been working as a migration specialist on capacity building projects for governments of countries outside Europe, funded by the European Commission (EC). She is an evaluator of European projects, funded by the EC, on migration. Among other publications, she co-organized the book "New and Old Routes of Portuguese Emigration. Uncertain Futures at the Periphery of Europe".
Her projects have prioritised the communication to the media and civil society as well as cooperation with governmental and non-governmental bodies.