The agreement, also known as the “green lane” for migrations, facilitates the regulated hiring of foreign workers through the five employers’ confederations that signed the protocol.
“The outcome is positive, and the protocol is progressing well,” declared Pedro Portugal Gaspar, four months after its signing.
The president of AIMA revealed that he met with the Portuguese Farmers Confederation on Tuesday to discuss the protocol. “About 800 situations have already been regularized in terms of visa processing within the framework of regulated migration,” he noted.
Apart from the five confederations that endorsed the program, an additional 19 major business groups have joined, signaling strong business community support, highlighted Pedro Portugal Gaspar.
Small businesses can submit hiring requests through their respective sector confederations, which will involve commitments to provide Portuguese language education, professional training, and housing for new employees.
Gaspar added that the process “is starting to gain quantitative expression,” with the goal of most foreign entries occurring through this mechanism.
“We are still regularizing many pending processes, yet the system is moving towards gaining importance,” stated Pedro Portugal Gaspar, who is scheduled to address parliament in a debate on the new nationality law.
“We must not confuse the nationality law with a mechanism for regulating migration issues,” he emphasized, expressing AIMA’s openness to work with existing legal instruments.
Over the past year, AIMA increased its human resources by 9.1%, indicating the organization’s growing appeal.
This increase was achieved “without any differentiating measures, meaning no additional supplements for workers nor external recruitment,” he stressed.
