A quarter of foreigners residing in Portugal live in poverty and the employment rate among men and women is more unequal than in the Portuguese population, concluded the statistical portal Pordata in a study released today (December 18), to mark World Migrants Day.
“More than one in four foreigners residing in Portugal (28.9%) live in poverty or social exclusion, almost 10 percentage points above the Portuguese population (19.2%) in this situation,” although below the situation of immigrants in the EU (around 40%), according to a detailed portrait of foreigners in Portugal in terms of employment, education, migration flows and nationality attributions.
In Portugal, “gender inequalities in the labour market are more pronounced than in the Portuguese population”, with many more foreign men working than women (86.4% of men and 68.5% of women), a difference that is not as pronounced among the Portuguese (84.7% of men and 79.3% of women).
“With regard to the unemployment rate, among the foreign population, men register 8.3% and women 14.6%, while among the population with Portuguese nationality the percentage is 4.8% for men and 5.3% for women,” according to the report from the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation‘s statistical portal.
However, there are more foreigners than Portuguese nationals in the labour market (88.2% and 86.9%, respectively), but the data changes when analysing the percentage of people looking for work (11.5% among foreigners and 5% among Portuguese nationals).
“It is among the female population that there are greater differences between foreign residents and Portuguese nationals, both in terms of the unemployment rate, which is 9.3 percentage points higher among foreign women, and the employment rate, which is 11 percentage points lower than that of women of Portuguese nationality,” says Pordata.
New realities
The presence of more foreigners – 1,543,697 resident in Portugal at the end of 2024 – has also transformed the education system, with the number of pupils with at least one parent of foreign nationality increasing by 58% between 2020 and 2023, reaching 206,011 cases.
With regard to the granting of nationality, there was a 21% increase between 2023 and 2024, involving 20,624 citizens residing in Portugal, but data released by Pordata indicates that the percentage of foreigners applying for Portuguese citizenship is traditionally very low (five out of every hundred, when analysing the “corresponding number of foreigners registered six years earlier”, the current deadline for applying).
On the contrary, “the majority of attributions of Portuguese nationality were granted to residents abroad”, with 26,216 being granted in 2024, “81% of which were to foreigners of Portuguese Sephardic Jewish descent”.
With regard to migratory flows, in 2024, 177,557 people, nationals or foreigners, immigrated to Portugal, and in the same period, “33,916 people (of Portuguese or foreign nationality) emigrated permanently, resulting in a positive migration balance of 143,641, slightly lower than in 2023 (155,701)”, according to Pordata.
Between 2009 and 2018, the country had more Portuguese immigrants than foreign immigrants, with the balance reversing in recent years, but in terms of emigration, the balance has always been very significant, with 80% of people leaving the country being Portuguese nationals.
Among emigrants, “young people between 20 and 34 years old have been the most prevalent group, almost always representing more than 50% and reaching a maximum of 57% in 2024,” the report states.
“Between 2016 and 2023, the influx of foreign immigrants grew at an average annual rate of 37%, the highest in the EU27,” the Pordata analysis also indicates.
Source: Lusa
