Active civic participation of immigrants in Portugal

Abstract

Portugal’s historical past strongly influences the composition of the country’s immigrant\npopulation. The main third-country foreign nationals in Portugal originate traditionally from\nPortuguese-speaking African countries (namely Cape Verde, Angola, Guinea Bissau, and S.\nTomé e Príncipe) and Brazil. In 2001, a newly created immigrant status entitled “permanence”\nauthorization uncovered a quantitative and a qualitative change in the structure of immigrant\npopulation in Portugal. First, there was a quantitative jump from 223.602 foreigners\nin 2001 to 364.203 regularized foreigners in 2003. Secondly, there was a substantial qualitative\nshift in the composition of immigrants. The majority of the new immigrants began coming\nfrom Eastern European countries, such as Ukraine, Moldavia, Romania, and the Russian\nFederation. Thus, European countries outside the E.U. zone now rank second (after African\ncountries) in their contribution of individuals to the stocks of immigrant population in Portugal.\nThe differences between the new and traditional immigration flows are visible in the geographical\ndistribution of immigrants and in their insertion into the labour market. While the\ntraditional flows would congregate around the metropolitan area of Lisbon and in the Algarve,\nthe new migratory flows tend to be more geographically dispersed and present in less urbanized\nareas of Portugal. In terms of insertion in the labour market, although the construction\nsector is still the most important industry for immigrant labour, Eastern European workers\nmay also be found in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.\nThe institutional conditions that encourage immigrants’ civic participation are divided at three\ndifferent levels: the state, the local, and the civil society levels. At the state level, the High\nCommissioner for Migrations and Ethnic Minorities is the main organizational structure along\nwith a set of interrelated initiatives operating under specific regulatory frameworks, which act\nas mediators between state officials and the Portuguese civil society, and more specifically,\nimmigrant communities. At the local level, some municipalities created consultative councils\nand municipal departments aiming at encouraging the participation and representation of interests\nfrom immigrant groups and association in local policies. In the civil society sphere, the\nmain actors in Portugal spurring immigrants civic participation are immigrant associations,\nmainstream associations directed toward immigration topics, and unions. The legal conditions\nframing immigrants’ access to social housing, education, health, and social security in\nPortugal are also considered to be positive. Conditions restricting immigrants’ civic participation\nare mainly normative and include the Portuguese nationality law, the regulations shaping\nthe political participation of immigrants, namely in what concerns their right to vote, and\nemployment regulations restricting immigrants’ access to public administration positions.\nPart II of the report focuses on the active civic participation of third country immigrants.\nFirst, reasons for the lack of research on this issue in Portugal are explained. On the one hand,\nthe recent immigration history and the more urgent needs regarding school and economic integration\nkept this issue out of the research spotlight. On the other hand, it was just in the beginning\nof the 1990s that immigrants took the very first steps toward collective mobilisation.\nSecondly, the literature review of Portuguese bibliography covers research on third country\nimmigrants’ associative movement, research on local authorities’ policies and discussion\nabout ethnic politics and political mobilisation of immigrants in Portugal.\nAs political mobilisation of these groups has been made mainly through ethnic and/or migrant\norganisations, a brief history of immigrants' associative movement is given. Immigrant associations\ndevelop multiple roles, covering the social, the cultural, the economic and the political\ndomains. Political claiming for the regularisation of illegal immigrants has been a permanent\nand important field of intervention since the mid-1990s. Research results reveal the com5\nplex relations between ethnic mobilisation and the set of legal and institutional frameworks\ndeveloped by local and national governmental authorities targeted to the incorporation of minority\ngroups. Case studies on the Oeiras district and on the Amadora district are then presented.\nConclusions underline that the most active immigrant groups are those from Cape Verde and\nGuinea Bissau, since these groups have constituted a higher number of ethnic associations,\ngive priority to political claiming and present a more politicised discourse.\nReflecting on the future of research on civic participation of third country immigrants in Portugal,\nthe authors state that it would be interesting and relevant to compare the Portuguese\nsituation with those of other European countries, with an older immigration history, and analyse\nhow the Portuguese immigrants’ associative movement will be affected by a changing\nlegal framework and the emergence of new opportunities within the set of structures regarding\nthe political participation of minority groups.