Main name at the head of the recently approved reform of the Law on Foreigners in Portugal, which facilitated access to work visas for Brazilians, among other groups, the Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Ana Catarina Mendes, defends that immigrants are essential for sustainability country’s economic and demographic
A deputy for the Socialist Party for more than two decades, she rebuts opposition criticism that the project has been rushed through – the text was approved last Thursday (21), just over a month after its announcement in the Council of Ministers, but been in the Budget since 2020.
“We had a political crisis, for six months Parliament could not legislate”, he tells Sheet, calling the deal “absolutely urgent to revitalize the economy”. With one of the lowest birth rates in the European Union and an increasingly aging population, Portugal has been betting on attracting immigrants as an engine of growth — since 2016, the foreign population in the country has grown by 77.7%.
Despite the incentive policies, which contrast with the stance of several other EU members, there is a bottleneck in the regularization processes, which today take more than two years to complete, and an increase in xenophobia complaints. Mendes says that changes in the law are expected to streamline bureaucracy and claims that the government does not ignore episodes of racial discrimination.
“These are not alarming numbers from the point of view of comparison with other member states of the bloc, but they should alarm us, as soon as there are cases.”
The creation of new visas has been planned since 2019, but it was presented and voted on in just over a month now in 2022. Why this speed? There is no rush like what was said by the opposition. There is a reality. In July 2021, Portugal signed the mobility agreement with the CPLP [Comunidade dos PaÃses de LÃngua Portuguesa]. For this agreement to come into force, the Foreigners Law had to be changed, and we had a political crisis, with six months on hold. Parliament could not legislate. To give substance to an agreement that is absolutely urgent to revitalize the economy and have more regulated migratory flows, it was essential that we proceed with the changes.
Since 2017, Portugal has again had a positive migratory balance. This is due to our humanist vision, but of those who perceive the present. We have a problem of demography and the need to revitalize the economy and, as a State, we have to respond to those who are looking for new opportunities in life here — because they have fled war, a dictatorship, misery or the effects of the climate crisis.
Knowing that the Foreigners and Borders Service is still processing regularization requests made in 2020 and that the consular network has delays in issuing student visas, is Portugal able to handle the processing of new visas today? I hope that this is also a possibility for a change in the way the public administration welcomes foreigners who come to us. We are not unaware that there are deficiencies in the SEF response, and our expectation is that this will improve. That’s why we streamline processes.
In addition to the bureaucratic issue, does Portugal have the conditions to absorb more migrants? We currently have around 700,000 migrants in Portugal and success in their integration into school and the job market; success in accessing health and social protection. For the rest, I must remember that even at a time of a pandemic, foreign citizens had access not only to vaccination – and around 600,000 were immunized -, but also to the layoff system, a measure that guaranteed the maintenance of jobs even while we were confined.
Since 2016, we have made an effort to increase responses and ensure that people here have the same rights and duties. We went from five reception structures for foreigners to more than a hundred of them, spread throughout the country.
Discrimination against Brazilian Portuguese is a recurring complaint in educational establishments. Is there any initiative to integrate more Portuguese variants? The Orthographic Agreement was once a way of harmonizing Portuguese. I think that this is a job that schools and teachers will be doing, because we ask that there be a work of integration. The words are not all the same, but the language is the same. Portuguese is one of the most widely spoken languages ​​in the world, and we have a very important Lusophone community. I understand Lusophony as an asset for all of us.
Complaints of xenophobia and discrimination have shown an upward trend. Is there a problem in the country? Portugal is indeed a country of integration, but that does not mean that it does not have episodes of discrimination and racism. I attribute much of the increase in the number of complaints to two situations. First, I think there is greater awareness and dissemination of this phenomenon. Then, I think that today there is also an autonomous structure that allows people to feel more comfortable making a complaint.
These are not alarming numbers from the point of view of comparison with other Member States of the European Union, but they are numbers that should alarm us from the moment that there are cases, and that these must be monitored.
Portugal admittedly has a problem of low wages. Could the arrival of more immigrants worsen this scenario? Those who have this view are those who think it is possible to discriminate against someone based on origin. What happens in Portugal is what the Constitution says: equal work, equal pay.
But there is demonstrably a pay gap. A survey by the International Labor Organization indicates that foreign workers earn 29% less than Portuguese workers. I have these indications from the ILO, and I think we should be aware of this phenomenon. The State must promote “equal work, equal pay”. Which means not discriminating on the basis of their origin, sex, gender or sexual orientation. It is article 13 of our Constitution.
x-ray | Ana Catarina Mendes, 49
Trusted name of Prime Minister António Costa to conduct legislative activity, she has been a deputy since 1995 and holder of the portfolio of Parliamentary Affairs, responsible for the protection of migrations. Graduated in Law at the University of Lisbon.
