In 2016, the inflow of foreign population to Portugal was 46 900, the highest level recorded since 2010 and a 24% increase relative to 2015. This large inflow led to the first increase in the foreign population stock since 2009. There were 397 700 foreign nationals living in Portugal in 2016, a 2.3% increase compared to 2015.
More than half of the increase in the yearly inflow can be accounted for by EU free mobility. The number of EU migrants increased by more than 40% in two years: from 14 700 in 2014 to 21 200 in 2016. The largest intra-EU inflows in 2016 were from France (3 500), Italy (3 100) and the United Kingdom (3 100). These increases were at least partly due to the favourable non habitual resident tax regime for new fiscal residents. This sets a 20% income tax rate for listed highly qualified occupations, as well as no taxes on foreign pensions and foreign capital gains.
The number of residence permits for investment purposes (ARI) also increased in 2016 and 2017 as backlogs were recovered after the suspension of the program in 2015, which was linked to a judicial investigation on corruption. Between January and July 2017, 1 000 permits were issued (as well as an additional 2 000 for family members), compared with a total of 1 400 permits (and 2 300 family members) in 2016.
Four hundred persons were granted refugee or international protection status in 2016, twice as many as in 2015. Two thirds of these were humanitarian residence permits and one third granted refugee status. Portugal continued to fulfil its commitment in the framework of the EU Agenda on Migration to host and resettle 4 574 people coming from Greece and Italy until December 2017. Between January and June 2017, 2 250 individuals were relocated or resettled, approximately 50% of the total number that had been agreed upon.
After an increase from 2010 to 2013, emigration has been largely stable since 2013, with an estimated 38 300 permanent and 58 900 temporary emigrants in 2016.
Several initiatives were launched to increase the attractiveness of Portugal to foreigners as well as to returning Portuguese emigrants. A call for projects with a social impact in Portugal was launched in 2016 within the “Strategic Plan for Migration – 2015-2020”. Forty projects were selected. A new visa program for entrepreneurs (Startup Visa) started in January 2018 for third country nationals. The selected startups will be incorporated into the Startup Portugal network and benefit from its incentives and programs.
2016 marked ten years since the passage of the 2006 Nationality Law which facilitated the acquisition of Portuguese nationality for the children of immigrants born in Portugal or for those who arrived as children. Between 2008 and 2016, 225 000 individuals acquired Portuguese nationality. Three quarters of these were naturalisations. In 2016, 29 000 individuals acquired Portuguese nationality, 30% more than in 2015.
The Nationality Law was amended in 2017 in order to speed up the process of nationality acquisition. Language testing is not necessary for citizens of Portuguese speaking countries and police records are no longer requested from countries where the applicant lived before age 16. The 2007 Immigration Law was also amended twice in 2017. The 2007 law stipulated that under exceptional circumstances, immigrants who had the promise of a work contract in Portugal could request a residence permit as long as they had entered the country legally. The 2017 amendment makes this a routine procedure, which should speed up the granting of such permits. The law also restricts the expulsion of undocumented immigrants who are taking care of minors born in Portugal or who arrived in Portugal before age 10. It also amended the 2007 Immigration Law by transposing into national legislation three EU directives on the conditions of entry and residence of third-country nationals for seasonal work, intra-company transfers, and for research, education, training, volunteering, and au pair purposes.
A new framework to handle racial discrimination was created with the passing of Law 93/2017. Henceforth, all the instruction stages will be concentrated in the Commission for Equality and Against Racial Discrimination (CICDR). The composition of the CICDR will be more diversified with the inclusion of a representative from the Roma communities and with representatives of all political parties. The concept of discrimination was also broadened in order to include elements such as ancestry or territory of origin.
