Portugal’s Prime Minister, António Costa, says the country needs more immigrants to thwart a predicted demographic breakdown caused by an ever-ageing population.
According to figures from a 2017 study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, the country needs a minimum 50,000 foreigners per year to start to restore the balance between the working and non-working sectors of the population.
To fulfill the objective to get enough people of working age into the country, the Government really needs to attract 75,000 immigrants per year.
At a time when European countries are increasingly clamping down on immigrants, Portugal could emerge as a country that is open to foreigners. In 2016, the country took in more than 61,000 new residents, the highest number since 2009, states the report.
The Government is studying new ways to attract new inhabitants to Portugal and is looking at amendments to the current immigration laws to make it easier for foreigners to come and live in Portugal.
As an example of amendments already actioned, residence permits now can be issued to those who have a ‘promise of employment’ rather than an actual work contract, as was previously required.
According to the Foreigners and Borders Service, when this rule was relaxed, in the first week there was an increase of 1,300% new requests – a total of 4,073 people.
In the Foundation’s study, without the entry of migrants, by 2060 Portugal would have lost 40% of its population of working age.
Those looking at Portugal when planning a new life, may be disconcerted to see that almost 50% of the households that submitted a tax return in 2016, registered gross incomes of under €10,000-per-year.
In a population of around 10.3 million, IRS statistics show that only 0.81% of the total number of taxpayers earned more than €100,000-per-year.
In the €10,000 to €19,000 gross income range, 27.62% of households were included.
Between €19,000 and €40,000, 19.40% of households were represented and between €40,000 and €100,000, only 7.18% of households qualified.
Gross incomes did increase during 2016, ending 4.57% higher than the year before.
