Portugal's Migration Plan: A Year of Unprecedented Demographic Shifts and Challenges

Portugal has witnessed a dramatic transformation in its demographic landscape over the past year, according to the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro. The government's Action Plan for Migrations, launched a year ago, has been hailed as one of the most successful operations in addressing pending immigration cases, particularly those handled by the AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migrations, and Asylum).

Key Achievements and Demographic Changes

• Quadrupled the number of foreign immigrants in Portugal
• Quadrupled the number of foreign students in public schools
• Increased demand for primary healthcare services
• More foreign contributors to Social Security

Leitão Amaro emphasized that this growth represents an unprecedented quantitative transformation in Portugal's democratic history. He also highlighted a significant shift in the nature of immigration, moving from populations sharing linguistic and cultural ties to a more diverse influx.

Challenges and Future Directions

The plan has also led to a 60% reduction in entries for residency, with over 33,000 foreign nationals seeing their legalization requests denied, potentially facing voluntary departure orders. The minister criticized previous governments' immigration policies for creating challenges that Portugal will face for decades, urging a focus on border control, national territory inspection, and effective integration.

A Logistical Milestone

Describing the past year's efforts as a "brutal logistical operation", Leitão Amaro reported that all 446,000 pending expressions of interest have been addressed, with half of the CPLP authorizations already processed. Despite these achievements, experts call for more focus on immigrant integration, acknowledging the end of expressions of interest as a correct decision.