Foreigners' Law: What is at Stake?

The reality is there for all to see. These aren't perceptions, but official figures: the number of foreigners living in Portugal increased from 421,000 (2017) to 1,521,000 (2024), representing about 15% of the population. The number of foreign students attending public schools rose to 172,279 (2024), with many of them expected to rise. There were 1,408,683 primary healthcare consultations for foreigners in the NHS.

In recent years, we've become accustomed to seeing long lines outside AIMA (National Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agency), social security offices, and health centers. Hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. Lives on hold, with no present or future. Homelessness, many of them immigrants, is on the rise, as are illegal construction projects in the outskirts of cities.

This situation is due to decisions by socialist governments (the “expression of interest” mechanism, work search visa, and the abolition of the SEF) that opened the borders without creating the conditions to receive these people.

The Socialist Party (PS) is in denial and accuses the government of lacking humanism in approving new immigration rules. They argue that immigrants are important for the economy and social security, forgetting those living in basements and shacks, lacking hygiene and dignity. They lack access to public services that were not (and are not) prepared to welcome them.

Portugal needs immigrants. True. The issue is finding a balance. The PSD understands that this balance has been broken, not only by the numbers but also by the rapidity of the phenomenon, hindering dignified and humane integration, especially for those who don't speak Portuguese. This isn't about racism, as some on the left claim, but about realism and common sense. Integration is different.

Such a significant and sudden increase, coupled with the increased pressure on public services—healthcare, education, housing, transportation—already weakened by years of socialist disinvestment, creates integration difficulties and a natural sense of unrest among the population. This helps explain the electoral earthquake that affected left-wing parties.

Unlike the far right, we do not advocate a homogeneous society. We believe in an open and pluralistic community, as factors of growth and social innovation. Overseas expansion and the Portuguese diaspora are there to remind us that we are greater when we open ourselves to the world. But for the "other" and the "different" to be an opportunity and not a problem, we must create conditions to welcome and integrate those who come from outside.

It is worth asking: what kind of society do we want to build?

A decent and cohesive community, with networks and affective (and effective) bonds of belonging and neighborliness? Or a country of strangers? Do we truly want to integrate, or will we resign ourselves to racial ghettos, as in other countries?

This is what is at stake with the legislative changes proposed by the Government and approved by Parliament: firm, clear rules to regulate immigration and integrate with dignity the 1.6 million foreigners already here.

Firstly, the creation of a new foreign and border police unit (which had not existed since the irresponsible abolition of the SEF, when José Luís Carneiro was Minister of Internal Administration), operating within the PSP, to monitor those arriving and increase the capacity for the return of illegal immigrants.

A clear separation between the residence visa (to live and work) and the acquisition of Portuguese nationality, which implies speaking our language and adhering to our constitutional values, which is now required by law.

In addition to the highly skilled workers we want to continue attracting, Portuguese companies are now reporting to the government annually on their labor needs for each economic sector. With one difference: companies are held accountable for providing decent working conditions to the workers they hire, to put an end to the current Wild West.

Citizens of Portuguese-speaking countries, who until recently lived in limbo (220,000 with precarious documents and no freedom of movement), can still visit us. However, to live and work in Portugal, a CPLP visa is now required, with security and criminal record checks. I recall that, under the "socialist" rules, there were 120,000 "automatic" authorizations, meaning without criminal record checks.

The new law on foreigners, complying with the rules of Directive 2003/86/EC on family reunification, now requires anyone wishing to receive a family: (i) two years of legal residence in Portugal, (ii) demonstrate the means of subsistence and housing for the family, (iii) learn the language and know the Portuguese constitutional values.

Uncontrolled immigration protects no one: neither those already here nor those arriving. Only by regulating migration flows can we combat the situations of human indignity and labor exploitation we have witnessed. It's strange that the left doesn't understand this.