A piece of paper reading "Employee needed" has been stuck to the window of a bakery in central Lisbon for several months, a practical example of the need for labor, accentuated by the end of the entry of regular immigrants.
"This is a boring job, I know. You have to open and close, with a break in the middle of the day, but even paying a little above the table I can't find anyone," says João Santiago, owner of the small business.
Rui Santos, owner of a workshop in Loures, has a similar problem, having already turned away new customers because he does not have the workforce.
"Before, I wanted mechanics with experience. Now I only want people who want to learn this," he says.
These complaints in Greater Lisbon are repeated throughout the country, with a particular incidence in less populated areas, and immigrants ended up filling some of these gaps. However, since the beginning of June, those who arrive without a work visa have not been allowed to work legally.
The country has an unemployment rate of 6.1%, just 1.3 percentage points above what is classified as full employment, but the lack of labor in sectors such as tourism, hotels, restaurants, agriculture or services is visible in the unanswered advertisements.
The expressions of interest, suppressed by the Government at the beginning of June, were a legal mechanism that allowed anyone who arrived in Portugal as a tourist to start working and, after 12 months of social security contributions, could request their regularization.
Today, this resource does not exist and small businesses cannot turn to those in this situation. Instead, they need to notify their sector associations, which will ask the government to open work visas abroad, in a Portuguese consular network that has not yet been reinforced with the new staff promised by the government in June.
"I don't even dare to think about the work involved in hiring someone who might not adapt later on," laments João Santiago.
The number of foreigners prevented from entering the Portuguese job market directly is compounded by the departure of those who have worked here for many years, managed to regularize their situation, obtained citizenship or another stable legal framework.
Due to low wages in the European context, Portugal is a "workforce revolving platform", João Carvalho, a researcher at ISCTE, specialist in migration, mobility and ethnicity, who is part of the European project MirreM, which measures irregular immigration, told Lusa.
"In surveys with agricultural workers and others, it was concluded that few people plan to settle in Portugal in the long term", highlighted the researcher.
Therefore, this decision by the Government to put an end to expressions of interest and the desire of the party to its right to block any entry of immigrants has the immediate consequence of impeding the fluidity of the Portuguese labor market.
Meanwhile, "Portugal continues to receive money for social security from irregular immigrants" who are already here, highlighted João Carvalho, who downplayed the importance of public policies in controlling the flows.
"When there is growth, people come, no matter what. When there is a crisis, they leave, as has already happened," he stressed.
Thus, the end of expressions of interest "will create a large segment of irregular workers, who even make discounts, and will not have access to regular status", he highlighted.
On the other hand, the presence of irregular immigrants will be attractive to companies, because they are "cheaper competition" for lower wages.
"The unions have always defended regularization so as not to send wages even lower," he recalled.
In turn, economist Eugénio Rosa advocates greater control over immigration in Portugal, which should "seriously invest" in resources to recruit staff and not "just wait for people to arrive".
"It is clear that our economy needs immigrants, but we cannot under any circumstances let people enter in an avalanche and then have a situation in which immigrants have no work," said the economist, who criticized the polarization of discourse around the issue, on the left and the right.
"The idea has been sold that immigrants are profitable, but this cannot be seen in that way", because although they contribute to social security revenues, population growth and the economy, their presence in Portugal also puts pressure on other sectors such as the health system, education or housing, he stressed.
"I advocate that, in a controlled manner, human integration conditions be created for those who arrive" and, to this end, a correct assessment of the country's needs is necessary.
"There are those who arrive and don't have a job", said Eugénio Rosa, recalling the case of Timorese immigrants who arrived in Portugal two years ago and were left in a "situation of total vulnerability", after the "promises of an Eldorado made by Portuguese politicians".
Furthermore, "there are qualified immigrants who are then unable to integrate in Portugal in accordance with their qualifications", due to the "disorganization and dehumanization" of the professional validation system in Portugal, he said.
The path, he argued, must be "step by step" and not "open doors", to reduce the unemployment rate among immigrants.
"There are areas in the country, in the Algarve, that voted for the far right because of this", because "they see people on the streets" and others, "to survive they accept any salary and this enters into competition with the local workforce", said the economist, who has no doubts about an open policy towards the entry of foreigners.
"We need immigrants, our birth rate does not allow us to replace the population that is dying," he concluded.
But, in Loures, that is not what worries Rui Santos, who is also the father of three children.
Among the "Portuguese, no one wants to work, everyone wants courses, but then no one wants to do things that even give them some money", he laments.
"They go abroad and get their hands dirty, but here in Portugal it is the immigrants who get them dirty," he said.