Plan for humane immigration with clear rules

"I see the immigrants who seek out Portugal today as new Portuguese people and I want the country to see them as new Portuguese people", said Prime Minister Luís Montenegro when presenting the Action Plan for Migration approved in the Council of Ministers.

The Prime Minister stated that "the people who seek out Portugal do so with the same spirit as the Portuguese who seek new opportunities abroad." "Just as we wish our folk to be welcomed and integrated", "it is with this respect (…) that we wish to welcome the immigrants who come to boost our country’s social and economic fabric". 

The Council of Ministers decided on "an encompassing action plan for migration" with a "spirit of openness, welcoming, which is complemented by the care taken with our youths so they don’t leave and so those who have left may be able to return".

Neither shut nor ajar

Luís Montenegro recalled that before becoming Prime Minister he stated that "the immigration policy I proposed to the country was at the same time one with doors neither shut nor ajar", adding that "this principle becomes policy." 

"We feel we must regulate immigration to offer people dignity. Portugal cannot and won’t have its doors shut to welcome those who are looking for opportunities, who have know-how, willingness, often they have what we are lacking. Portugal will not shut its doors to those who want that opporuntity. It would never do so due to humanism, yet also for pragmatism, fulfilling our national interest", he said. 

However, "we cannot fall onto the other extreme, where our doors will be ajar, with no control of who’s coming in, not being with those who seek us out and leave them to their fate", "to be abandoned, forgotten and, many times, abused by human trafficking syndicates".

Respect and rules

"When we envisage a country that welcomes and cares, we envisage respect for people. And for that, we need rules", he stressed. 

The Prime Minister noted that the decisions taken in the Council of Ministers "aim at putting an end" to a situation "that is very different to the one we want. Having more than 400 thousand people with their permits pending represents lack of capacity, of human character", he said, adding that "we must give the people a response, even if it’s a negative one. The worst thing is to live in uncertainty, unrest".

They also aim at "ending facilities that have become an abuse to our responsibility to take in people. We have a procedure according to which a mere manifestation of interest may facilitate and make us lose control over the migrants coming into Portugal. Today, I will deliver that bill in hand to the President of the Republic".

It also aims at "streamlining the procedures to complete what is pending", that is, take care of all pending procedures, "check if the situations are compliant so they can be accepted". 

Immigration unrelated to crime

Luís Montenegro claimed that "we need to tell the country eye to eye (…) that there is no direct relation between taking in immigrants and rising crime rates. There are crimes committed by Portuguese citizens and by foreign citizens and there is no point in stigmatizing the communities that seek us out, using casuistic events. If we do so, we must draw the same conclusions on our citizens". 

"Another issue is we must keep people who are vulnerable from sticking to the same parts of the territory, where you have 20 or 30 people living in the same house or small warehouse or having them concentrate there because we did not set up the integration we desire and have that image offer a sensation of insecurity to everyone else".

Noting that "the feeling of insecurity also causes insecurity and, therefore, public powers must also try to keep this image from generating insecurity, by taking people in and integrating them", he added.

Effective yet humane solutions

The Minister of the Presidency António Leitão Amaro, who presented the plan in detail, stressed that immigration "is a great challenge that falls on the country", which we must all handle. 

Claiming that "it is possible to solve this problem", he said that "we are here to solve the challenge and offer effective, yet humane solutions."

"Our vision, which we propose to the country, is based on four pillars: we must have regulated emigration, invest in the proactive attraction of foreign talent, we must welcome well and in a humane way those who come in and we must get the state operating much better", he summarised.