African and South American continents responsible for majority of new residents
The number of foreigners living in Portugal increased by 33.6% in 2023, compared to the previous year, totalling 1,044,606 citizens with a residence permit, according to the Migration and Asylum Report released today.
This means foreigners now make up 10% of the nation’s fabric.
According to AIMA, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, the number of legal foreigners in Portugal has more than doubled in six years, from 480,300 in 2017.
2023 was also the period in which the number of foreigners grew the most.
The report “is an essential tool for characterising migratory dynamics and processes in Portugal – an vital piece of public information that is due from the Administration,” writes Pedro Portugal Gaspar, president of AIMA, in the document.
In addition to this figure, according to the authorities, there are 400,000 cases pending under these conditions from the end of last year.
Among the most prominent nationalities, 35.3% are Brazilians (368,449 people), followed by 55,589 Angolans (5.3%), 48,885 Cabo Verdeans (4.7%), 47,709 British (4.5%), 44. 051 Indians (4.2%), 36,227 Italians (3.5%), 32,535 Guinea-Bissau (3.1%), 29,972 Nepalese (2.9%), 27,873 Chinese (2.7%), 27,549 French (2.6%) and 26,460 from São Tomé and Principe (2.5%).
By continent, the biggest increase in foreigners compared to 2022 was seen in citizens from Africa (51.2% more) and South America (54.2% more).
Of the total number of foreigners, 53% are men and 80.5% of the total are part of the working population, with more than half between the ages of 25 and 44 (532,214 people).
By district, the majority live in Lisbon (431,919), which was also the region of the country with the highest absolute growth (106,600 more people), an increase of almost a third. This is followed by the districts of Faro (meaning the Algarve), Setúbal and Porto.
According to the report, “it is noteworthy that nine of the twelve districts with the highest number of foreign citizens belong to the Lisbon metropolitan area, totalling 436,277 (41.8%)”.
In 2023, the number of residence permits granted more than doubled (328,978), corresponding to an increase of 130% compared to 2022 – a year which had already seen an increase of 28.5% compared to 2022.
The “migratory flow shows a substantial increase compared to previous years, with the Residence Authorisation for citizens of the Community of Portuguese Language Countries (CPLP) standing out”, corresponding to 45.3% of the total, says the report.
In addition to the CPLP visa, new residence permits granted were based on processes related to residence certificates (53,988), professional activity (50,333), family reunification (44,878) and study (23,876).
Analysing by nationality, Brazil was the country with almost half of the residence permits in 2023 (147,262), followed by Angola, Cabo Verde, São Tomé and Príncipe, India, Guinea-Bissau, Bangladesh, Italy and Nepal.
In an analysis of several years in the report, the population with residence permits has almost always risen since 1980 (50,750 people), with the exception of 2005 and the period between 2010 and 2015.
In June, the government changed the law on foreigners and did away with expressions of interest, which allowed for the legalisation of foreigners who arrived in Portugal on a tourist visa and started looking for work.
This legal recourse, contemplated in articles 88 and 89 of the law, led to the legalisation of around 15% of cases in 2023 but is, according to the authorities, one of the main reasons for the system’s overload, along with the CPLP visa.
Among CPLP Residence Authorisations, Brazil (108,232) has more than twice as many as all the other countries.
During 2023, 2,901 Residence Permits were granted for investment activity, almost 20% of which were for citizens of the United States (567).
The year 2023 was also the time when the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF) was abolished and AIMA was created. In total, last year the State services answered 697,986 calls and made 303,105 appointments for immigrant cases, a figure that had a 12.5% rate of non-compliance by applicants, due to dropping out or failing to turn up.
According to the document, in 2023, 1,226 administrative offence cases (i.e. fines) were filed, 658 foreigners were detected in an illegal situation, less than in the previous year due to the extension of the validity of documents, and Brazilians represent 52.4% of the total number of voluntary repatriation notifications.
In 2023, “344 administrative expulsion proceedings were opened“, with 99 cases coming from Brazil, and the number of beneficiaries of the UN Voluntary Return Support programme increased by 28.2% compared to 2022 (505 cases).
With regard to refugees, 2,693 international protection (asylum) cases were registered in 2023, 35% more than in 2022, with 72.7% of applications made by men and almost half of the cases coming from Africa. But among nationalities, the highlight is Afghanistan (330), followed by Gambia (316), Colombia (253), Senegal (197), Angola (155) and Israel (126).
As for unaccompanied minors seeking asylum, there was a decrease (81 cases) of 28.4% compared to 2022.
Ukrainians are covered by temporary protection approved by the European Union because of the Russian invasion of the country. “By the end of 2023, 54,342 applications for temporary protection had been granted, of which 46,823 concerned Ukrainian citizens,” the report also states.
Source: LUSA
