Background information

The Action Plan for Migration, approved by the Council of Ministers on 3 June 2024, aims, according to the government, to correct the serious problems in the rules for entry into Portugal, resolve the operational incapacity of AIMA - Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, I.P. (Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo, I.P) and ensure that border control systems are operational. In addition to the entry process, another fundamental axis of the Action Plan is to act on the integration of immigrants, so that it is effective and works.

The plan is based on the principle that Portugal needs and wants to welcome more immigrants - for demographic, social and economic reasons, while monitoring and regulating immigration and promote humane integration.

Content of measure

The Plan is divided into four main areas of action: regulated immigration; attracting foreign talent; human integration that works; institutional reorganisation.

The Plan contains a total of 41 measures. Some of these are mentioned below:

• Regulated immigration: the measures include a review of the rules for entry, namely the abolition of the Expressions of Interest procedure. But also the rules for the Resolution of Pending Applications and Irregular Situations, which will include the creation of a mission structure to resolve the more than 400,000 pending cases.

• Attracting foreign talent: setting up a system for attracting human capital, using a needs assessment that aligns current and future labour shortages in the national economy. Improving the process of recognition of qualifications and skills.

• Humanism: the commitments include strengthening the operational framework of the CPLP - Community of Portuguese Speaking Countries (Comunidade dos Países de Língua Portuguesa) Mobility Agreement. Enforcement on national territory will include the creation of a multi-force enforcement team to combat abuses (trafficking in human beings, illegal immigration, labour exploitation and human rights violations).

• Reception: provides for the creation of Municipal/Intermunicipal Emergency Reception Centres for immigrants. It also includes a reinforcement of the supply, coverage and frequency of teaching Portuguese as a non-mother tongue.

Use of measure

No information on the use of the measure is available.

Target groups

Workers	Businesses	Citizens
Migrants or refugees in employment	Applies to all businesses	Migrants or refugees

Actors and funding

Actors	Funding
National government	European Funds National funds

Social partners

Social partners' role in designing the measure and form of involvement:

	Trade unions	Employers' organisations
Role	No involvement	Unknown
Form	Not applicable	Not applicable

Social partners' role in the implementation, monitoring and assessment phase:

• Only employers' organisations
• Main level of involvement: Peak or cross-sectoral level

Involvement

Social partners were not involved in designing the plan.

However, employer organisations were later involved in designing the implementation of specific measures (as detailed in the EU PolicyWatch database case PT-2025-14/3752 on the Protocol for Regulated Labour Immigration).

Views and reactions

Most social partners did not express publicly their views on the approval of the Plan by the government.

This was not the case of the General Confederation of Portuguese Workers (Confederação Geral dos Trabalhadores Portugueses, CGTP-IN), which believes that the revocation of residence authorisation procedures based on expressions of interest will not resolve any of the existing issues, and may in fact have the opposite effect of what is allegedly intended - namely, increasing the flow of illegal immigration and undocumented citizens. As for the other measures presented in the Plan, although considering that there was not yet sufficient information to make a definitive statement, the CGTP-IN has already expressed its concern regarding some of the referenced measures, particularly those that underpin an economic and security-driven approach to migration policy. (CGTP-IN, 5 June 2024)

Sources

• 03 June 2024: Plano de Ação para as Migrações (www.portugal.gov.pt)
• 03 June 2024: Plano de Ação para as Migrações: conheça as principais medida (www.portugal.gov.pt)
• 05 June 2024: Posição sobre o plano de acção para as migrações apresentado pelo Governo para as migrações apresentado pelo Govern (www.cgtp.pt)