BFF-03Portugal, the European country that wants more migrants

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EUROPE-MIGRANTS-PORTUGAL

Portugal, the European country that wants more migrants

LISBON, July 2, 2018 (BSS/AFP) – Unlike most European nations, who are
trying to reduce the influx of migrants, Portugal is bucking the trend by
looking to immigration as a way to counter its declining population.

“We need more immigration and we won’t tolerate any xenophobic rhetoric,”
Prime Minister Antonio Costa told activists at a party conference in May,
drawing resounding applause.

Demonstrating this openness, Portugal was one of the first that
volunteered to take in some of the migrants on board the Lifeline, a rescue
ship which had been stranded at sea since June 21 after Italy refused it safe
harbour.

And as European leaders struggled to reach a deal at a summit last week
over who should take in migrants rescued off the coast of North Africa,
Portugal’s socialist government was already taking steps to make itself a
more attractive destination.

“It was a very difficult summit and the apparent consensus reached in the
deal did not hide the deep divisions which are today threatening the European
Union,” Costa said after leaving the summit.

And Friday’s election of former Portuguese minister Antonio Vitorino as
head of the International Organization for Migration “demonstrates the great
importance that Portugal places on dialogue about the issue,” the foreign
ministry said.

– Aim: 75,000 per year –

Costa, whose father was a well-known communist writer descended from an
aristocratic family in the former Portuguese colony of Goa in India, has made
reviving the declining population a key element of his political programme.

And it will be a central issue for him as the country heads into elections
next year in which Costa is the frontrunner.

According to studies quoted by the government, Portugal needs at least
75,000 new residents every year simply to maintain a stable working
population, which today numbers just 10.4 million people.

In this context, the government on Thursday adopted a raft of new
regulatory measures to simplify the procedures for getting a visa for
students or those wanting to create a start-up.

And it also opened the way to regularise the status of some 30,000 foreign
nationals who arrived legally in Portugal but do not have any authorisation
to work.

During the three years of recession which followed the financial crisis of
2011, more than 300,000 Portuguese left in search of a better standard of
living, many of them young university graduates.

In 2017, Portugal registered a positive migration balance — the
difference between those leaving and those entering the country — for the
first time in six years, the National Statistics Institute said.

– Lack of skilled labour –

Last year, the Portuguese authorities issued 61,400 new residency permits,
an increase of 31 percent from 2016, which reflected a six percent increase
in the number of foreigners living in the country, a border police report
said last week.

The country has also returned to growth, notably thanks to a boom in
tourism and foreign investment in property, but business leaders have warned
that it could be easily reversed by the lack of skilled labour.

The hard-won deal reached by EU member states on Friday stipulates that
migrants rescued at sea should be redistributed among the different member
states — on a voluntary basis.

Portugal is already part of a voluntary programme for the redistribution
of refugees proposed in January by the European Commission which aims to
resettle at least 50,000 refugees over the next two years.

Within the framework of an earlier programme, which ran from 2015 to March
2018, Portugal took in 1,552 refugees.

However, only about half of those who entered Portugal stayed, with the
rest leaving for countries offering better economic opportunities.

BSS/AFP/MSY/0842 hrs