Researcher Catarina Reis de Oliveira, from the Migration Observatory, today called for greater efforts from authorities to demystify stereotypes associated with immigrants and “combat these false perceptions” that stigmatize them.
In a week in which attacks on immigrants in Porto are in the news, Catarina Reis de Oliveira highlighted that “statistical evidence” does not link immigrants with crime and that Portugal does not have a high number of foreign citizens compared to the European average.
In the first debate on the migration phenomenon, organized by the Lisbon Municipal Assembly and under the theme “Migration management: institutional responses”, Catarina Reis de Oliveira recalled that the Observatory advocates “migration management based on statistical evidence” and the organization’s objective is to “substantiate more informed public policies”.
Therefore, it is necessary to “combat myths and stereotypes about immigrants in Portugal”, he stated, defending more intense communication campaigns to dismantle this misinformation.
“There are many false perceptions about migration” and it is up to the Observatory to “continue to monitor and validate whether the facts confirm these perceptions or not”, but so far, the data does not indicate that Portugal is in a worrying situation.
“It is clear that migration has increased in Portugal”, but “we are far from the impact that the foreign population has in comparison with other European countries”, he stated.
Everything indicates that the 2023 data shows that Portugal “has already surpassed one million foreign residents”, but the 2022 data – the only ones already public – indicate that the immigrant population represented only 7.5% of the total residents, placing the country in 18th place in Europe, a ranking led by Luxembourg (47%).
Despite this, the researcher admitted that there are social pressures, because the “foreign population is not distributed evenly across the country”, with 16% of immigrants living in Lisbon.
However, in a per capita analysis, municipalities such as Vila do Bispo, Odemira or Albufeira have more immigrants than the capital.
In Portuguese society “there are wrong perceptions and we need to confront them”, stated the director of the Observatory, considering that there is no data that indicates a “relationship between immigrants and crime”, that foreigners are “subsidy-dependent” or “steal jobs from nationals”.
To combat these myths, authorities need to promote “deconstruction tools”, using campaigns on social media and other platforms that reach people.
The Judicial Police (PJ) today arrested the suspect of two crimes of attempted murder and two crimes of discrimination and incitement to hatred and violence, which occurred in the early hours of Monday against two immigrants in Porto.
In recent months, downtown Porto has been the scene of several disturbances and hate crimes, which, according to a PSP source heard by Lusa today, has led to a "reinforcement" of police surveillance in the areas considered most critical.
At the Lisbon Municipal Assembly, Vasco Malta, head of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) mission in Portugal, recalled that Porto is only the fourth district in the country with the most immigrants and argued that “organized immigration benefits everyone”.
There are 281 million migrants in the world, 3.6% of the total population, he highlighted.
However, “obviously there are points or cities” that “in a short space of time receive a very significant flow of people”, with “very great pressure”, but it is “important to base ourselves on facts and figures”, he warned.
Present at the debate, Mário Ribeiro, director of the Migrant Integration Departments of the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA), stated that the regularization of immigrants is a priority, which led to the creation of a mission structure to recover the 400 thousand pending processes.
“For AIMA, it is a concern that people are in a regularized situation”, he stated, recalling that “residence permits were extended until 2025” and there is an effort to coordinate with immigrant associations to speed up procedures, something criticized by local leaders in the municipal assembly.