Main political parties seemingly come together over immigration
A study by the Faculty of Economics at the University of Porto has concluded that Portugal needs more immigration if it wants to increase its economic growth and standard of living in order to ‘join the group of richest countries’ in the European Union by 2033.
This opening paragraph, from an article written last month, will have triggered a number of reactions, some of them negative – particularly as it was not explained until a long way down the text that by ‘needing more immigration’, the study meant “in a controlled manner”.
Since that article came out, however, an enormous amount has happened.
Most recently, around 3,000 people took to the streets of Lisbon on Sunday to protest against ‘uncontrolled immigration’.
It was a demonstration called by right-wing party CHEGA – Portugal’s third political force (with enormous ambition to increase its following, and often labelled ‘extremist’). But the message was, in the end, consensual: the country’s minority government, led by PSD/CDS-PP is just as focused on immigration controls (see below), and PS Socialists have shown no enthusiasm for meeting immigrant groups bewailing the current direction of play (also see below).
For CHEGA, last Sunday was “historic”, because, in the words of its leader André Ventura, it was “the first time in Portugal’s history that a large movement has taken to the streets to say that it doesn’t want to put an end to immigration, but to control immigration”.
Ventura told reporters that his party is in favour of “a country open to those who want to come for good, to those who want to come to work”. For many, this will have been a refreshing surprise: it gels almost completely with the focus of the current executive whose Migration Plan was brought in in June, and is already showing marked effects: the enormous backlog of residency applications in the hands of AIMA (the newly-formed agency of asylum, integrations and migration) is slowly reducing, and new applications have been cut by 80%.
This last piece of news came on Monday, as the PSD/CDS-PP government held a two-day congress in a bid to show the country the progress it is managing (against the odds) in the relatively short time since it took over from eight years of Socialism.
As minister for the presidency António Leitão Amaro took part in a panel entitled ‘Sovereign Portugal’, he stressed that since the government scrapped the so-called “expression of interest” mechanism, applications for immigrant residency in Portugal have fallen exponentially.
“We don’t need to divide people between good and bad, our own and strangers, Portuguese and foreigners,” he said. AD is seeking to implement “a moderate alternative”, aware that “Portugal needs immigrant workers and needs those who may truly be fleeing situations of humanitarian aggression.
“At the same time, we needed to close some of the wide-open-door measures, which is why we made the most difficult decision (to scrap expressions of interest) straight away – just a few weeks into the job.”
The expression of interest mechanism refers to the previous Socialist government system whereby immigrants could enter the country on a tourist visa and, once in Portugal, could apply for residence by expressing an interest in seeking employment.
In its place is a whole new process whereby consulates in Portuguese-speaking countries and others are being set up to ‘recruit’ immigrants for employment in Portugal before they leave their native country. In other words, by the time they get here, they will be ‘expected’; they will be part of the economy, taking the country forwards. At least, these are the plans.
For now, immigrant associations are still in uproar, and planning street demonstrations even this month, demanding that the expression of interest mechanism is restored; arguing that it is a human right.
What is telling is that the battling associations do not have a great deal of support, beyond the multitude of immigrants they are representing.
Speaking to Lusa last month, Timóteo Macedo, president of the association Solidariedade Imigrante, admitted that PS Socialists, like all the other leading parties, had shown “a lack of commitment to restoring expressions of interest”.
He actually said he believed now is the moment to “show the strength of immigrants” with street protests. They are “the only weapon we have at our disposal at the moment”.
Reading between the lines, no matter how strong the street protests of immigrants, the mechanism will not be restored: the new system promises to be a lot more manageable and effective – and immigrants will still be welcomed to this country where they are needed.
“Immigrants using professional courses to become legalised”
The greatest problem with the government abolishing expressions of interest with almost no notice (as happened in June) is that “thousands of foreign workers were living in this country, without having started their processes for legalisation”.
What has happened to them? Technically, they “lost access to authorisation of residency”, and should have left the country, “even if they had started working, and paying into social security”, says Expresso. But, of course, many haven’t. Instead, through various online groups and platforms, they have discovered that there is a way (still) to become legalised after arriving on a tourist visa: it is by enrolling on a professional course that runs for more than one year.
According to Expresso’s sources, clause 92º of the Foreigners Law in Portugal allows for students to apply for residency without the need for an entry visa – and once matriculated, they can even bring over direct family members, including step-children, if necessary.
There are (meant to be) various provisos: the courses have to be attended (students must be seen to be taking them); they cannot be online, etc. Expresso claims at least two colleges are suspected of having taken advantage of this mechanism to enroll students who are not actually studying. But also, according to the paper, AIMA is aware of this, and is asking for “declarations of frequency”, so it is still looking as if the government’s ambition to control immigration is having effect.
That said, we will only know for ‘certain’ next year, when AIMA produces its next migration and asylum report. Its most recent report showed that the number of foreigners living in Portugal increased by almost 34% in 2023, meaning that foreigners now make up 10% of Portugal’s population.
The most prominent nationalities are Brazilians (35.3% – 368,449 people), Angolans (5.3% – 55,589), Cape Verdeans (4.7% – 48,885), British (4.5% – 47,709), Indians (4.2% – 44,051), Italians (3.5% – 36,227), citizens from Guinea-Bissau (3.1% – 32,535), Nepal (2.9% – 28,972), China (2.7% – 27,873), France (2.6% – 27,549) and São Tomé e Príncipe (2.5% – 26,460).
By NATASHA DONN
