In talks with deputies, representatives of the Executive say that an anti-immigration package will be relaxed. Discussion on the Nationality Law will be for October.
Despite being contradicted by the decision of the Constitutional Court (TC) to veto the anti-immigration package, which imposed a series of restrictions on immigrants living in Portugal, the Government of Prime Minister Luís Montenegro made clear, in conversations with several political parties, that it will soften the proposals for changes in the Foreigners Law (23/2007).
The Government already admits that, in the package that will be resubmitted to the Assembly of the Republic later this September, it will accept that spouses of immigrants who are in Portuguese territory can resort to family reunification. By the previous project, this benefit was restricted to minors.
The Constitutional Court’s claim to veto the anti-immigration package that had been approved in Parliament, with the support of the radical populist right, was that, as the measures left the Assembly of the Republic, Portugal would sanction the separation of families for long periods, also through the fault of the State.
Family reunification can only be done from the regularization of one of the family members. According to the anti-immigration package that was failed, to request the regrouping of the spouse, the immigrant would have to be living legally for two years in Portugal. The problem is that many people wait up to three years to obtain regularization with the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).
The government’s retreat, however, does not mean that AIMA will make immigrants’ lives easier. Family reunification has been stalled for almost two years, that is, long before the government proposes the anti-immigration package to Parliament. Even children have not been regrouped. Asked several times about this topic, AIMA did not comment.
According, all the details of the new proposal for changes to the Foreigners Law will be closed in the coming weeks. According to Rita Matias, vice president of the Camamora, the first party that met with representatives of the Government on Wednesday (03/09), the important thing is that the new package is more “pro family”, with the concern that they are “feasive families constituted in a legitimate way”.
To journalists, the representative of the radical populist right said that her party will not admit “any kind of family regrouping of marriages that are done with negotiations” and that “there have to be evidence of a cohabitation experience.” He added that the families benefiting from the regrouping should be “in monogamous marriage regimes” and “voluntary marriage”.
Carlos Abreu Amorim, Minister of Parliament Affairs, for his part, said that the government "will abide by the judgment and the decision of the Constitutional Court", although it is discordant. Parliamentarians who were with the Minister of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, António Leitão Amaro, said that he is concerned about the impasse around the legislation aimed at immigrants, which can cause "a so-called effect". He would not have presented figures to justify such concern.