In a week in which attacks on immigrants in Porto are in the news, Catarina Reis de Oliveira stressed that “statistical evidence” does not link immigrants to crime and that Portugal does not have a high number of foreign citizens compared to the European average.

In the first debate on the migration phenomenon, organised by the Lisbon Municipal Assembly and under the theme “Migration management: institutional responses”, Catarina Reis de Oliveira recalled that the Observatory advocates “migration management based on statistical evidence” and the organisation’s objective is to “substantiate more informed public policies”.


Combat myths

Therefore, it is necessary to “combat myths and stereotypes about immigrants in Portugal”, he stated, advocating for more intensive communication campaigns to dismantle this misinformation.

“There are many false perceptions about migration” and it is up to the Observatory to “continue to monitor and validate whether the facts confirm these perceptions or not”, but so far, the data does not indicate that Portugal is in a worrying situation.

“It is clear that migration has increased in Portugal”, but “we are far from the impact that the foreign population has in comparison with other European countries”.

Everything indicates that the 2023 data shows that Portugal “has already surpassed one million foreign residents”, but the 2022 data – the only ones already public – indicate that the immigrant population represented only 7.5% of the total residents, placing the country in 18th place in Europe, a ranking led by Luxembourg (47%).

Despite this, the researcher admitted that there are social pressures because the “foreign population is not evenly distributed throughout the country”, with 16% of immigrants living in Lisbon.

However, in a per capita analysis, municipalities such as Vila do Bispo, Odemira, and Albufeira have more immigrants than the capital.

In Portuguese society, “there are wrong perceptions and we need to confront them”, stated the director of the Observatory, considering that there is no data indicating a “relationship between immigrants and crime”, that foreigners are “subsidy-dependent” or “steal jobs from nationals”.

To combat these myths, the authorities need to promote “deconstruction tools”, using campaigns on social media and other platforms that reach people.

The Judicial Police (PJ) today arrested the suspect of two crimes of attempted murder and two crimes of discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, which occurred in the early hours of Monday against two immigrants in Porto.

In recent months, downtown Porto has been the scene of several riots and hate crimes, which, according to a source from the PSP interviewed by Lusa today, has led to a "reinforcement" of police surveillance in the areas considered to be the most critical.

At the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, Vasco Malta, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in Portugal, recalled that Porto is only the fourth district in the country with the most immigrants and argued that “organised immigration benefits everyone”.

Present at the debate, Mário Ribeiro, director of the Migrant Integration Department of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), stated that the regularisation of immigrants is a priority, which led to the creation of a mission structure to recover the 400,000 pending processes.

“For AIMA, it is a concern that people are in a regularised situation”, he stated, recalling that “residence permits have been extended until 2025” and there is an effort to coordinate with immigrant associations to speed up the procedures, something criticised by local leaders in the municipal assembly.