Portugal News

Immigrants are eagerly awaiting the Constitutional Court's (TC) ruling on changes to the Foreigners' Law. The decision could be announced this Thursday, August 7th, or this Friday, August 8th, the deadline set by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa. On July 24th, the head of state requested a response within 15 days.

The Public Prosecutor's Office confirmed this Wednesday the opening of an investigation into the president of Chega, André Ventura, and the party's deputy Rita Matias, regarding the disclosure of the names of immigrant children enrolled in a Lisbon school.

In a response sent to Lusa, the Attorney General's Office (PGR) stated that "the opening of an investigation related to the matter is confirmed".

André Ventura mentioned the list of names in the Assembly of the Republic and Rita Matias revealed the names in a video shared on social media.

Agency for migration warns that it has expanded care to citizens with residence permits due in Portugal. Initially, those with expired documents were contacted in 2020 and 2021.

The Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) began to call immigrants whose residence permits expired in 2022 and 2023 so that they can renew the documents. Until then, this service was concentrated among foreigners with residence permits expired between 2020 and 2021.

“It is estimated that 70,000 Portuguese will have left in 2023, the same number as in 2022, thus continuing the recovery of Portuguese emigration to levels close to those seen in the years prior to the Covid-19 pandemic,” reads the Portuguese Emigration 2024 report, with data referring to the previous year.

Immigration has been crucial in sustaining the Portuguese labor market and Social Security, disproving several myths that persist in public debate. This is the conclusion of a new study by Randstad Research.

Titled "Myths and Realities about Migration and the Labor Market," this study compares common perceptions with official data from the INE, IEFP, Eurostat, and Social Security.

Delegations from Chega, Livre, IL, and PCP were received yesterday by Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa—with the foreigners' law on the table. While André Ventura stated that he was "99.9% certain that the President of the Republic will send the new law to the Constitutional Court," Rui Tavares declined to anticipate the decision. Mariana Leitão expressed "support" for the possible oversight, and finally, Paulo Raimundo spoke of a law "drafted in haste" and "with formal oversights."

Agency for Migration releases a statement explaining how the process of renewal of residence permits expired from July 1 is being renewed. Holes in the system are tormenting immigrants.

President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa will meet with Chega's president, André Ventura, this Tuesday for an urgently requested meeting focused on the enactment of the new immigration law. The legislation, approved in Parliament with the favorable votes of the PSD, Chega, and CDS parties, is still awaiting presidential enactment, prompting criticism from Ventura, who accuses Marcelo of deliberately delaying the process.

The changes to the foreigners' law were approved in Parliament this Wednesday, with votes from the PSD, Chega and CDS, abstention from the Liberal Initiative and rejection from the entire left.

Family reunification becomes more difficult, and a police force is created to expel undocumented immigrants. During the session, there was widespread criticism of the lack of mandatory opinions and the government's haste.
 

The PS even tried, at the last minute, to have the law removed from the voting script, but the appeal fell on deaf ears.

The bill is expected to be finalized at the end of September.

Deputies from the right and left of parliament held a tense debate today in the Constitutional Affairs Committee regarding the experts and entities that should submit written opinions regarding the Government's proposed nationality law.

The bill that changes nationality is one of the Government's bills that requires urgent processing in parliament and, according to the PSD and CDS-PP, should be finalized in committee by September 28.