Four public entities and five business confederations signed this Tuesday the Cooperation Protocol for Regulated Labor Migration, which allows large companies and business associations to hire workers abroad through the consular network
It has been dubbed a “green route” for recruiting foreign workers, but the government led by Luís Montenegro says that this is not the case. “The essential thing is that we are not creating a green route for immigration,” said the Minister of the Presidency, António Leitão Amaro, last week when asked about the protocol about to be signed to hire immigrant workers directly in their countries of origin.
Officially named Cooperation Protocol for Regulated Labour Migration, the mechanism for granting fast-track visas began to be studied last summer , at the same time that the Executive tightened the rules for immigrants entering the country and extinguished the expression of interest – a legal mechanism provided for in the 2007 Foreigners Law that, until last June, allowed the regularization of those who arrived in Portugal with a tourist or student visa or through irregular channels.
“This Government has closed the wide-open door that existed with the expression of interest, under which 440,000 people attempted to settle in Portugal,” Leitão Amaro said at the end of the last Council of Ministers on Thursday. As this is a protocol that does not imply legislative authorisation, he had explained days earlier, it can be signed and implemented without the presence of the Government and with Parliament suspended. And that is what will happen this Tuesday, also without the presence of the trade unions, which, as part of the social dialogue, were not included in the negotiations.
In a statement criticizing this exclusion, the UGT expressed "strong concern" about the protocol, whose contents could open the door to potential violations of the rights of foreign workers. "They seem to point towards a deregulation of working conditions and could ultimately contribute to the creation of new inequalities and new sources of exclusion for migrant workers," the trade union said. "Perhaps the absence of unions explains the changes highlighted in the protocol's content, which seems to admit new sources of precariousness and exempt Portuguese employers from their training obligations."
Speaking to CNN Portugal, Catarina Reis Oliveira, former coordinator of the Migration Observatory, highlighted the same potential risks. “The process effectively becomes less transparent – if there is direct management in the country of origin, which transfers workers to an employer who, in essence, locks them away within its own area of intervention, it becomes unclear what the integration process will be like,” the sociologist said. “It is a very closed and non-transparent logic.”
What defines the protocol?
Under this protocol, which CNN Portugal had access to, companies now have access to a mechanism for “direct hiring abroad” through the network of Portuguese consulates, in a five-stage process involving four public entities and five business confederations and which has the main objective of “improving and strengthening the channels for regular immigration of workers, thus combating illegal immigration”.
As defined in the document, the process begins with the employer sending, by email, to the Directorate-General for Consular Affairs and Portuguese Communities (DGACCP) the necessary documentation to schedule a visa application for a single individual or a group. The DGACCP forwards the process to the corresponding consular post, which schedules the appointment, initiating the visa issuance process – which, from the date of the appointment, must be completed within 20 days.
Subsequently, the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA) and the Borders and Foreigners Coordination Unit of the Internal Security System (UCFE/SSI) issue the necessary opinions for granting visas, so that the consular posts can make a final decision. The Institute of Employment and Vocational Training (IEFP) is also involved in the process, in order to ensure that immigrants have access to Portuguese classes and the 40 hours of annual training defined by the Labor Code, although the protocol provides that this training can take place "in the country of origin".
It is up to companies to collect and present copies of all documentation and sign a liability agreement to ensure that migrants will have “decent” conditions, including an employment contract and health and travel insurance. Only employers’ associations and confederations with at least 30 members and a total turnover of 250 million euros or more may join the protocol, as well as companies that directly employ 150 or more workers, with a turnover of 25 million euros or more and no debts to Social Security.
Under the same agreement, AIMA is required to issue opinions “within three working days from the date of receipt of visa applications”, and the agency is responsible for suspending the protocol whenever “relevant security reasons or serious difficulties in putting pressure on the response capacity of essential public services” so justify, after consultations with DGACCP and UCFE/SSI.
It is also defined that the State is responsible for “monitoring compliance with obligations and commitments” by companies, “analyzing reports and complaints and promoting the carrying out of regular inspection actions by the security forces and services and by the Authority for Working Conditions, in accordance with the law, in collaboration with AIMA and UCFE”. What remains to be clarified is how, considering that the majority of migrants do not speak the language and do not have, from the outset, labor representation or similar, these inspection actions will be triggered.
Regularization "without response"
In order to strengthen the response capacity of consular services, the document to which CNN had access states that 50 visa analysts have already been recruited and started working in March, and “a face-to-face service” is being finalized so that regular immigrants can request all identification numbers – NIF, NISS and NNU – at once. However, given the real workforce needs, there are doubts as to whether the reinforcement of consular services will be sufficient.
“Portugal already had a communication mechanism through the consular network and was unable to respond, because the timing of the bureaucratic component does not match the immediate and pressing needs of the job market”, highlights Catarina Reis Oliveira. And there are other unanswered questions, namely regarding citizens of non-EU countries who are already within the European Union or in Portuguese territory.
“It is understandable that it would be desirable to prepare for migration by providing support from origin to arrival, but migration is more dynamic than that and we end up no longer having a response in the country for immigrants who arrive through other channels,” says the sociologist. “It is a common concern to understand how immigrants who are already in Europe and who arrive in Portugal with precarious documents can regularize their situation and justify the need to remain in the job market. Now they are left without a response.”
With the end of the expression of interest, immigration lawyer Ana Borges told CNN, the possibility of regularizing immigrants who are already in Portugal has disappeared, with the only exception being the so-called transitional regime, which the Government approved after having decided to extinguish the mechanism “overnight, taking many people by surprise”.
Under this transitional regime, which is still in force, immigrants with proof of contributions to Social Security prior to June 4, 2024, can continue to apply for an expression of interest, the lawyer adds. Alternatively, the possibility of obtaining work visas remains when, from their countries of origin, immigrants sign a contract with a Portuguese company.
In practice, however, those who are already in Portugal and want to regularize their situation no longer have mechanisms to be able to live and work legally in the country. “Since 2007, we have had a permanent regularization gateway in the law, which prevented immigrants from being linked to the informal economy, and which allowed them to document this relationship with the labor market, through registration and contributions to Social Security,” says Catarina Reis Oliveira.
This made it possible not only to “combat labor exploitation”, but also to “guarantee direct benefits for those who hired people in extreme vulnerability, especially because the market continues to need these workers – in fact, in the last decade, these needs have increased significantly due to the aging of the population”, highlights the former coordinator of the Observatory for Migration.
In addition to the protocol signed today, the Government approved on Monday, at a meeting of the National Council for Migration and Asylum, measures to speed up the deportation of immigrants who do not have the right to remain in the country, including eliminating the initial notification stage for voluntary departure from the country and reducing the time limits for appealing the final decision. However, it has not yet announced any measures to respond to those who wish to regularise their situation. Last week, António Leitão Amaro promised "good news about the conclusion of the regularisation process" for the "coming weeks", without providing details.
"Satisfied" confederations
For business confederations, the protocol signed today is “fundamental” to rescue sectors that are largely dependent on foreign labor. In an interview with Público , Armindo Monteiro, from the Portuguese Business Confederation (CIP), applauded the “instrument for regularizing workers, otherwise the activity of several sectors would be at risk”. He also reinforced the Government’s position on the need to end the supposed “open-door policy” on immigration – saying that businesspeople do not want “an open-door migration, but a program based on the needs of companies”.
Given that the protocol only implies that migrants must live and work in Portugal, without references to the period of stay and movement through the countries of the European Union, guaranteed to all legal residents of the Schengen Area, the president of the CIP invokes the need to, in the future, create a mechanism to control this recruitment, so that the country does not become a “revolving door” to Europe.
One of the points that generated great debate in the negotiations, as reported in recent weeks, was the issue of the duration of the contracts to be signed. Initially, it was expected that the mechanism would only involve an “effective employment relationship”, but in a concession to companies it now includes “a valid employment contract in one of the forms provided for in Portuguese legislation”, which includes fixed-term, indefinite-term, short-term, part-time or temporary work contracts.
This change is praised by the Portuguese Farmers' Confederation (CAP), whose president told Lusa that he was “overall satisfied” with the protocol because it allows companies to have a workforce “that is often seasonal” and have “a guarantee of speed” in hiring. The secretary-general of the Portuguese Trade and Services Confederation (CCP), Ana Vieira, speaks of a “positive” agreement because it allows companies to submit more than one visa application at a time, although she mentions the housing issue as “perhaps the most sensitive point” of the protocol, which represents “a great difficulty” for employers.
Accommodation and integration: doubts and gaps
The protocol states that companies must not only guarantee “adequate housing” for migrant workers, but also “further increase available accommodation” in the region where the work is carried out, “so that recruitment does not increase housing pressure”. However, it does not explain at any point how this can and should be done.
“Even with regular monitoring, these people arrive in Portugal and how are they monitored by the Portuguese State?”, asks Catarina Reis Oliveira. “And if it is the employer who provides the housing assistance, who supervises? And if they come to work, can they bring their families? And will their children be integrated into the school system?”
When asked about the matter, Álvaro Mendonça e Moura, from CAP, mentioned to Lusa the recently approved land law for having opened up “the possibility of building temporary accommodation on agricultural land” for workers in the sector. Armindo Monteiro highlighted that the “effort” required of companies to guarantee housing and “this availability” should not be “understood as remuneration that is therefore subject to IRS and Social Security”.
The protocol states that employers must “guarantee ethical recruitment and decent working conditions”, including access to “adequate accommodation”, but at no point does it detail what constitutes “adequate accommodation” – only mentioning “different possible modalities”, without identifying or listing which ones.
In addition to the other doubts raised, “it remains to be seen whether we will only have migratory flows from countries with diplomatic representation, when we know that Portugal is not represented in many of the countries that have these migratory flows”, points out Catarina Reis Oliveira, from the Migration Observatory.
The expert invokes a famous phrase by the Swiss thinker Max Frisch, often used in reflections on the social consequences of immigration in West Germany in the 1970s, when, in order to overcome the shortage of labor in the face of the growing needs of the labor market in a period of great economic growth in the FRG, the chancellery adopted a strategy of importing foreign workers, known as 'Gastarbeiter', or guest workers.
“'We wanted workers, but people came'. Of course, they are people and these people need integration measures. And it seems to me that the State is withdrawing from this process.”