Portugal’s government has today launched a new programme called ‘Integrar‘ aimed at helping immigrants registered in job centres to find paid employment, encompassing training, measures to recognise skills, and support in finding work. “Recognising that there are several challenges in the process of hiring foreign workers living in Portugal,” reads a minsterial decree issued by the secretary of state for labour, Adriano Rafael Moreira, the government has launched a set of measures for immigrants that include interviews, personalised monitoring and direct support in training. The government recognises it is “fundamental to welcome and integrate the immigrant population in the face of an ageing population and a shortage of workers in many professional areas and strategic sectors of the economy” but it equally notes that the numbers of unemployed immigrants are putting pressure on “various public services that intervene in the integration process”. Thus the need for this new programme, the operationalisation of which will be presented by IEFP (the Institute of education and professional training) in October.
