The foreign population living in Portugal increased in 2022 for the seventh year in a row to 781,915 citizens, with the Brazilian community remaining the most representative and the most expanded, SEF reported this Friday.
“In 2022, for the seventh consecutive year, there has been an increase of 11.9% in the resident foreign population compared to 2021, and stands at 781,915 foreign nationals holding residence permits,” the Immigration, Borders and Asylum (RIFA) Report says. ), which Lusa had access to on the occasion of the anniversary of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF).
According to the SEF, Brazilians remain the main foreign community living in the country, accounting for 30.7% of the total last year, as well as the community from Brazil, which has grown the most in 2022 (17.1%) compared to 2021 year, amounting to 239,744 people. .
RIFA indicates that the UK maintains its position in relation to 2021 with a growth of 5.8% being the second most representative foreign citizenship in Portugal.
“The steady growth of foreign nationals from European Union countries confirms the special impact of attractiveness factors already mentioned in previous years, such as the perception of Portugal as a safe country, as well as the tax advantages arising from the regime for non-residents. . usually,” the report clarified, highlighting immigrants from Angola, who moved up three positions to now rank sixth with a 23.1% increase, and India, which is currently the fourth most representative community.
Romania and China left the group of the ten most representative nationalities of Portugal.
At the end of 2022, there were 239,744 Brazilians living in Portugal, followed by citizens of Great Britain (45,218), Cape Verde (36,748), India (35,416), Italy (34,039), Angola (31,761), France (27 512), Ukraine. (25,445), Nepal (23,839) and Guinea-Bissau (23,737).
The SEF also reports that Portugal in 2022 was the destination country for 44,519 Ukrainian citizens fleeing the war and who were granted temporary protection by the Portuguese state.
Immigrants live mainly on the coast, with about 65% registered in the districts of Lisbon, Faro and Setúbal, with a total of 512,141 permanent residents, while in 2021 there were 466,779 people.
The report highlights the growth for the districts of Bragança, which has been declining since 2020, and Viana do Castelo, specifying that seven of the ten municipalities with the highest number of registered foreign citizens belong to the Lisbon metropolitan area.
In terms of migration flow, the SEF claims that there has been a downward trend since 2020 with 143,081 new certificates issued, representing an increase of 28.5% from the previous year when 111,311 new documents were issued.
Also, the majority of new titles were awarded to Brazilians (43,313), followed by Indians (7,414) and Italy (6,977), Angola (6,939) and Bangladesh (6,153).
“The most important reasons for issuing new residence permits were professional activity (51,525) and family reunification (27,054),” RIFA says.
Author: Portuguese
Source: CM Jornal
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