A document titled ‘Integration and Inclusion of Immigrants – The Priority’ was presented today to President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa and sent to the government, which has not yet responded. The signatories acknowledge that “this is not an easy path, because levels of polarization in Portuguese society have reached previously unimaginable dimensions.”
“Mutual accusations, blaming others, or easy disengagement will not help find common paths. We need to unite on what is essential, so that the priority now is the integration and inclusion of immigrants properly framed in their regularization process, not forgetting the most vulnerable, for the good of all,” wrote the signatories, who include former high commissioners for migration, academics, and association leaders.
The group was received today by the President of the Republic, who “welcomed the concerns warmly,” which “align with the opinions” of Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, stated spokesman Rui Marques after the meeting.
According to the authors, “the integration and inclusion of immigrants should take center stage in national migration policy, rather than focusing solely on the regulation of flows and regularization processes.”
Establishing the Immigration Consensus, it is emphasized that while significant attention has been given to regulating the influx of immigrants and legalizing pending cases, this work should include a comprehensive and holistic migration policy that acknowledges and values migrant contributions to economic, demographic, and social dynamism, inevitably encompassing integration and inclusion.
To finance these proposals, the authors suggest reinvesting “50 cents per euro of AIMA’s [Agency for Integration, Migrations, and Asylum] revenues from immigrants towards their integration and inclusion.”
This would enable “more specific and robust measures, fostering greater social cohesion and full integration and inclusion,” they argue, urging that “the budget should already be included in the 2026 State Budget and closely monitored by the National Council for Migrations and Asylum.”
The signatories reiterated that in the past, “Portugal’s experience in promoting migrant integration was internationally recognized, and the country should aspire to regain this status as an example,” advocating for the return of “National Integration Plans for Immigrants (the last of which ended in 2023, after being continuous since 2007), as well as Municipal Integration Plans for Immigrants,” initiatives “promoted by various governments and municipalities, from different political forces,” aiming for “a common national vision of valuing migration as a catalyst for development.”
The authors caution that “focusing exclusively on flow regulation and administrative process regularization risks neglecting the crucial importance of immigrant integration and inclusion.”
Among the proposals, the group also calls for promoting “the Portuguese language as an essential condition for integration and an intercultural education model that allows full integration of immigrant children, with responses that promote equity and cohesion within a framework of equal opportunities for all.”
Moreover, the authors advocate for “intercultural mediation as a key strategy for building bridges, mobilizing immigrants themselves, and paying more attention to access dynamics to housing under dignified conditions, without preferential treatment for immigrants over natives, but also without discrimination or acceptance of exploitation of their vulnerabilities.”
Established in mid-June, this group includes four former high commissioners, former Secretary of State Catarina Marcelino, researchers Lucinda Fonseca and Catarina Reis Oliveira, and association leaders Eugénia Quaresma and Paulo Mendes.
