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The High Commissioner for Migration in Portugal defends the adoption of active migration policies
Mariana Andrei - Communication Coordinator
19 June 2015
Pedro Calado, the High Commissioner for Migration, defends the adoption of "very active" migration policies to facilitate the labour integration of immigrants, whose annual net contributions to the Portuguese social security amounts to more than 240 million euros.
At the conference on "Global Mobility and attractiveness of Portugal: from action to strategy," held at the beginning of May, Pedro Calado said that the number of foreigners in Portugal increased since 2008. "For example, the number of foreigners holding a residence permit for purposes of attending higher education in Portugal increased by 109.1% between 2008 and 2012”, said the Portuguese Commissioner.
Considering the crisis which forced many Portuguese to leave, the country will need more immigrants in the following years. He estimates that Portugal “will need, by 2020, 170 thousand people in the area of technology, a sector where today there is no such workforce". This is the reason why Portugal aims to become proactive in the competition for attracting skilled work force. The climate, the social security, the cost of living, the quality of education, hospitality and tolerance are the country's attractiveness factors, which together with the cultural and linguistic proximity, and the quality of migration policies may change migration profiles, even in times of international crisis.
In the opinion of Pedro Calado, the immigrants' contribution is certainly positive, with migrants creating six times more jobs than the Portuguese. A report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that in 2011 "the activity rate for the Portuguese citizens was 47%, while among foreigners it was 61%, in clear contrast with the rest of the European Union." The number of investors and highly skilled researchers has also increased significantly in Portugal over the last five years, reaching more than 300,000. From a demographic point of view, 10% of the births recorded in 2013 were from foreign mothers resident in Portugal.
Although Portugal is one of the countries with permissive immigration policies, foreign citizens continue to work in less attractive economy fields or to take difficult jobs, although in general they are more qualified than Portuguese citizens.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/news/portugal-the-high-commissioner-for-migrations-defends-the-adoption-of-very-active-migration-policies-to-attract-migrants
At the conference on "Global Mobility and attractiveness of Portugal: from action to strategy," held at the beginning of May, Pedro Calado said that the number of foreigners in Portugal increased since 2008. "For example, the number of foreigners holding a residence permit for purposes of attending higher education in Portugal increased by 109.1% between 2008 and 2012”, said the Portuguese Commissioner.
Considering the crisis which forced many Portuguese to leave, the country will need more immigrants in the following years. He estimates that Portugal “will need, by 2020, 170 thousand people in the area of technology, a sector where today there is no such workforce". This is the reason why Portugal aims to become proactive in the competition for attracting skilled work force. The climate, the social security, the cost of living, the quality of education, hospitality and tolerance are the country's attractiveness factors, which together with the cultural and linguistic proximity, and the quality of migration policies may change migration profiles, even in times of international crisis.
In the opinion of Pedro Calado, the immigrants' contribution is certainly positive, with migrants creating six times more jobs than the Portuguese. A report of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) showed that in 2011 "the activity rate for the Portuguese citizens was 47%, while among foreigners it was 61%, in clear contrast with the rest of the European Union." The number of investors and highly skilled researchers has also increased significantly in Portugal over the last five years, reaching more than 300,000. From a demographic point of view, 10% of the births recorded in 2013 were from foreign mothers resident in Portugal.
Although Portugal is one of the countries with permissive immigration policies, foreign citizens continue to work in less attractive economy fields or to take difficult jobs, although in general they are more qualified than Portuguese citizens.
Source: https://ec.europa.eu/migrant-integration/news/portugal-the-high-commissioner-for-migrations-defends-the-adoption-of-very-active-migration-policies-to-attract-migrants
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