The Brazilian population legally residing in Portugal reached a record 252,000 people. With arrivals and regularizations taking place in the first six months of this year, today’s number represents an increase of 23.1% in relation to the data at the end of last year.
Between January and June, the SEF (Foreigners and Borders Service) issued around 47,600 new residence permits for Brazilian citizens — which represented more than a third of the 133,000 documents granted by the Portuguese immigration agency in the period.
The data, still provisional, were revealed by the newspaper Diário de NotÃcias and confirmed by the Sheet.
Due to the delay in the regularization processes, which can take more than two years to complete, most of the residence permits issued in 2022 are possibly from people who have lived in Portugal much longer.
The real size of the community, however, is much larger than the 252,000 people counted by the Foreigners and Borders Service. The statistic does not include who has dual citizenship of Portugal or another European Union country or who is in the country irregularly. Even so, according to government data, the number of Brazilians in the country is already 210% higher than in 2016, when there were 81,251 legal residents.
Migration experts point out that the migratory flow from Brazil to Portugal should intensify even more, especially due to the new work visas approved by Parliament in July, but which have not yet been fully implemented.
The new rule benefits citizens of CPLP countries (Communities of Portuguese Speaking Countries), the biggest change is the authorization for those who want to look for a job in Portugal. With it, foreigners will have a period of 120 days, which can be extended by another 60, to obtain a work contract. Anyone who cannot find a job within the stipulated period will be forced to leave the country and will only be able to submit a new application after one year of the expiry of the previous visa.
Portuguese deputies also approved a special visa for digital nomads and professionals working remotely for other countries.
Professor at the University of Coimbra, demographer Pedro Góis highlights that, despite the growing flow of arrivals and recent high-profile complaints of xenophobia, immigrants have managed to integrate with relative success into the job market.
“This new generation is a very interesting workforce for the tourism sector. Many are under 40, speak English — while speaking Portuguese to communicate with Portuguese-speaking tourists, they also deal with people from outside”, it says.
Portugal has a shortage of workers in sectors such as tourism, construction, agriculture and restaurant service, where remuneration is increasingly less attractive for the Portuguese. Low wages in the country, combined with rising housing costs, are often the biggest obstacles for newly arrived immigrants.
Entities supporting the Brazilian community, then, point out the trend that many of the new residents have opted for smaller cities or the interior, where it is still possible to find houses at more affordable prices.
Another challenge continues to be the growth in reports of racial discrimination and prejudice, including linguistic prejudice. Although immigrants are more aware of their rights and more willing to react, according to the Portuguese government itself, organizations supporting foreigners believe that the emergence of far-right movements can contribute to incitement to hate speech. In Portugal, the wave is represented by the party Chega!, by André Ventura.
In the opinion of Góis, however, the integration of Brazilians into Portuguese society usually happens in a more positive than negative way. “We have so much in common [portugueses e brasileiros] that the differences are easily bridged. There are other groups in which integration would be much more difficult”, he says. “The studies we have carried out show that our relationship with Brazil is always bidirectional. At the moment, more Brazilians are arriving, but we know that in a while it will be the opposite.”
