For businesspeople, Portugal elected Brazilians as preferred immigrants

The articles written by the PÚBLICO Brasil team are written in the variant of the Portuguese language used in Brazil.

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The decision by the Government of Portugal to facilitate the entry of Brazilians into the country — as they will be able to enter Portuguese territory as tourists and apply for a residence permit online on Portuguese soil — was well received among businesspeople. In their view, it is clear that the Portuguese authorities chose Brazilians as preferred immigrants to supply the job market, which is suffering from a lack of labor, whether specialized or not.

“The best option for Portugal at this moment are Brazilians and, by extension, citizens of other countries in the Portuguese Language Community (CPLP)”, says Fábio Mazza, businessman in the auction sector, who has been in Portugal for six years. “Culturally, Brazilians are the closest to the Portuguese and are easy to adapt to,” he adds. For him, Portugal needs to grow and modernize, and Brazilians can contribute to this process.

According to Mazza, there are open positions in the areas of restaurants, hotels, construction, industry, health services and even in the technology area, which, in Portugal, is growing at a rapid pace. “But there are not enough workers to fill all the positions. And this regardless of the region of Portugal. There are opportunities across the country, in some regions more, in others less”, he states. This happens, in his opinion, because young Portuguese people with good education prefer to go to other countries in search of better salaries.

Not only. “European citizens don’t have much interest in Portugal, also because of low wages. People from Eastern Europe, when they decide to emigrate in search of good opportunities, stop halfway, before arriving in Portugal. Asian citizens accept lower salary conditions until they obtain Portuguese citizenship, then move to other countries where salaries are higher”, he analyzes. In this context, Brazilians end up emerging and filling existing vacancies. “This movement is clear”, he emphasizes.

For Mazza, the migration process is complex, which is why the Government of Portugal needs to make the rules very clear. “It is not an easy equation, and the solution will not be found tomorrow, like what we see in the areas of health and housing. Consistent policies must be implemented, involving Government, Parliament and society, but without losing track of history. Maintaining the country’s economic growth will require increasingly more labor, especially qualified labor”, he warns.

Strengthening the economy

Owner of a company providing technological solutions for the financial system, Arthur Machado highlights that Portugal faces a major challenge in keeping sectors that demand workers better prepared to face the new world in operation. “In our case, the difficulty in filling vacancies is enormous. We need workers with dual knowledge, who understand technology and the functioning of the Brazilian and Portuguese financial systems. And finding these professionals in Portugal is not easy”, he says. This, he believes, only reinforces the importance of keeping the country’s doors open for Brazilians.

Machado highlights that even in sectors where the workforce is not as specialized, businesspeople have struggled a lot when it comes to hiring. Portugal, where almost 30% of the population is over 65, needs immigrant workers. “The services sector faces many difficulties in filling vacancies. In civil construction, this is visible in both large and small companies”, he adds. Without labor, the result is an economy growing below potential or even stagnant.

Director of the Overseas developer, Nuno Coelho states that, at construction sites, Brazilians are present in all areas. “In fact, we have seen many professionals becoming entrepreneurs, creating their own companies to provide services to large companies”, he details. This movement, adds the executive, reinforces the dynamism of the market, which tends to be greater if there is labor available to perform the services. “Brazilians, in general, are very well regarded in the job market”, he emphasizes.

Last Thursday (26/09), the minister António Leitão Amaro, from the Presidency of the Council of Ministersinformed that citizens of Brazil and East Timor will be able to enter Portugal as tourists and apply for a residence permit in Portuguese territory. For that, A website was created by the Agency for Integration, Migrations and Asylum (AIMA). However, a bill dealing with this topic must be approved by the Assembly of the Republic, which should occur in the next two weeks, according to the Government’s estimates.

Urgent reinforcement

Owner of the Palaphita restaurant chain in Portugal, businessman Mário de Andrade says it is urgent for the Government to encourage the entry of foreign workers, “as it is very difficult to hire”. He guarantees: “In the restaurant sector, the situation is one of the most critical, since the number of establishments has increased a lot”. The situation worsens, especially in the summer, when tourism reaches its peak and the number of personnel needs to be reinforced.

According to him, it is Brazilian workers who have met companies’ demand for labor. “If the entry of Brazilians were prohibited in Portugal, it would complicate everything and the country’s economy would take a hit”, he highlights. “Brazilians have been fundamental in moving the Portuguese private machine”, he adds. Therefore, he emphasizes, it is understandable that the current Government has kept its doors open to Brazilian citizens while imposing restrictions on the entry of people from other countries, even those speaking Portuguese, who continue to need visas to enter Portuguese lands.

Andrade uses the situation of hotels in the Algarve to reinforce how important foreign labor is for Portugal, where around 20% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) comes from tourism. “At the height of summer, many hotels were unable to operate at full capacity because there were no staff to clean the rooms. This is a sign of the seriousness and urgency of guaranteeing the presence of foreign workers in the country”, he states. “In other words, if the entry of immigrants is too restricted, Portugal will have to limit the tourism sector”, he warns.