This Monday, the Government approved new rules for immigrants in the country. The “expression of interest” is no longer required and an employment contract is now required to be presented at the consulates in the country of origin.
The Government will present the migration plan this Monday afternoon, after approval by the Council of Ministers, and one of the measures that should be announced is the end of the so-called “expression of interest”, a mechanism obtained from the Agency to the Inclusion of Migration and Asylum (AIMA) which, due to the time it takes to receive a response, ends up being a formula for automatic legalization of immigrants as long as they complete at least 12 months of Social Security discounts. The plan should have more than three dozen measures and will also include, in this context, the requirement of an employment contract for immigrants who from now on enter the country, but this contract will have to be presented at the Portuguese consulates in their countries of origin. .Government avoids clarifying whether it will revoke AIMA rulesRead more
Officially, the Government does not make comments and sends announcements after the Council of Ministers. Last week, the general secretariat of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers (PCM) invited more than 100 entities and personalities to present the “measures plan for migration” this Monday afternoon, at Nova SBE, in Carcavelos. After another week of news about the increase in the number of pending processes at AIMA, which will already exceed half a million, and the possibility of the departure of more than 100 employees from the agency that replaced the SEF, the Government will approve the plan in the council of extraordinary ministers on Monday morning and present it in the afternoon. And this weekend, the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, has already signaled the path the Government wants to follow. In an interview with DN / TSF, he stated that Portugal needs “ better, regulated immigration and, therefore, yes, there will be adjustments to the rules. On the other hand, a policy of attracting immigrants especially focused on qualified ones and, finally, an improvement of the entire reception and integration process to be more humane, faster and more effective. We will act with this balance .”
The Government’s plan practically segments the strategy into two lines of action: Recover pending processes at AIMA and change the rules for the future, for new immigrants. There is a conviction that migrants who are in Portugal must have an extraordinary regularization process, even to prevent them from ending up in the administrative court of the Lisbon Circle, as warned, in ECO, by judge-advisor Dulce Neto, who presides over the Supreme Court. Administrative Court. “ The situation is frankly that of a profound political error by the previous government, which has consequences for migratory flows and created an unworthy limbo in which thousands of people live in Portugal today. The reference to there being more than 400,000 pending cases, processes that have not been decided, people who do not have their residence situation regularized due to a lack of response from the State, because of these rules and because of the institutional collapse, is very worrying. It is an unworthy situation and, obviously, requires new responses from the government. This has and will be resolved ,” said the Minister of the Presidency in the same interview.
One of the possibilities on the table is to accept the legalization of all immigrants who are in Portugal with an employment contract, even if their entry into national territory was not legal. Currently, an immigrant can enter Portugal illegally, for example from another European country, request proof of ‘expression of interest’ from AIMA, which even without a contract provides a provisional guide pending a final decision. And if the immigrant has at least 12 months of discounts, they become legal status directly. As Leitão Amaro mentioned in the weekend interview, there is an average of 5000 requests per week and a response capacity that could currently be below 2000.
What does the law say?
In article 88 regarding Residence permit to carry out subordinate professional activity:
In addition to the general requirements established in article 77, a residence permit to carry out subordinate professional activities is only granted to nationals of third countries who have an employment contract concluded in accordance with the law and are registered with social security.
2 — Upon expression of interest presented via the AIMA SEF website, IP, on the Internet or directly at one of its regional offices, the requirement set out in subparagraph a) of paragraph 1 of article 77 is waived, provided that the foreign citizen, in addition to the other general conditions set out in that provision, fulfills the following conditions:
a) Has an employment contract or promise of an employment contract or has an employment relationship proven by a union, by a representative of migrant communities with a seat on the Migration Council or by the Working Conditions Authority;
b) Has legally entered national territory;
c) Be registered with social security, except in cases where the document presented under paragraph a) is a promise of an employment contract.*
António Leitão Amaro made a point of detailing, in this interview, the different conditions in which migrants with pending processes at the migration agency, the entity that succeeded the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), are. “ We are talking about the entire cycle of pending processes, which includes expressions of interest for the first residence permit, requests for family reunification, visa requests, renewal of visas or residence permits, visa processes for CPLP citizens (Community of Countries and Official Portuguese Language). The situations of asylum seekers who may be under international protection are different groups .”
In this sense, the Government is preparing to approve a rule that legalizes all immigrants who have an employment contract, even if they do not have 12 months of Social Security discounts. It is a measure that has humanitarian and inclusion concerns, but also of an economic nature. AIMA does not have detailed data on the number of workers with an employment contract of less than 12 months and their expulsion from the country could have a serious economic effect on the activity of thousands of companies and sectors that have a significant number of immigrants.
In the interview with DN/TSF, Leitão Amaro made a point of lowering expectations about the deadline for achieving results from this plan. “ This problem cannot be resolved with a single legislative decision. Not even with a magic wand. Regularizing more than 400,000 outstanding issues will take time. What do I know for sure? A strong conviction, at least. That if we do nothing, if this situation of great complexity in migration and immigration continues, we are creating fuel for the polarization and radicalization of discourse .”
Migration, remember, was one of the themes that marked the electoral campaign of these European elections, which take place on June 9, and the parties are between total liberalization, on the extreme left, and closing access to the country, on the far right.