Government wants to continue tightening controls on Portugal’s immigration
The ‘easy-immigration’ door open to nationals from Brazil and East Timor is set to close as the government reveals plans to continue tightening controls on Portugal’s immigration.
Right now, Brazilians and East Timor nationals can enter the country without any kind of visa. They come in frequently as ‘tourists’ and then apply for residency.
If the AD coalition gets its way, this will all change.
According to Expresso, the idea is that these nationals (all Portuguese speaking) will have to have entered the country on a ‘work visa’ in order to qualify for an application for residency.
The government needs support from at least one of the opposition parties in order to push through this change. It comes as ‘thousands of processes’ have entered into the system (at AIMA, the agency for integration, migrations and asylum) in this way, “sounding the alarm”.
The proposal has already been discussed “at high level with Brazilian president, Inácio Lula da Silva”, says the paper.
With AD’s four-year programme having now been approved by parliament (in spite of various criticisms), Expresso says immigration is to remain high on the agenda, with the Council of Ministers due to discuss changes to the Nationality Law next week, as well as to the regime of ‘family reunification’.
Both aspects are to be the “target of considerable changes”, the paper stresses. “In respect of the Nationality Law, the government is preparing to increase the time necessary for permanence of a foreign citizen in Portugal before he/ she can apply for citizenship. Currently, the period is five years, but the executive is pondering extending it to 10. The final decision will be made next week – as will decisions on how foreign citizens could lose citizenship (if they commit serious crimes, for example).
As for the issue of family reunification – the subject of a petition that has already gathered over 80,000 signatures – the plan is to restrict current terms, which open the way to one foreign citizen bringing in several family members from abroad. Expresso refers to the proposal to restrict this mechanism to minors already living in this country.
AD’s focus will be much more on attracting qualified talent from overseas to this country, with work visas already sorted through employers.
As Expresso explains another significant challenge is to increase the ability to integrate foreign families who have already swelled the country’s education system with 140,000 pupils.
Source material: Expresso/ SIC Notícias
