‘We hope a presidential candidate who includes everyone, will win’
The year 2025 was marked by setbacks in immigration issues, says Ana Paula Costa – president of the Casa do Brasil (Brazil’s House) in Lisbon – to newspaper Público. ‘We had a very difficult year in terms of narrative, legislation and integration of immigrants, not just for the Brazilian community.
‘Attacks of xenophobia and racism were unfortunately mainly directed to Asians and Roma but of course, the Brazilian community – being the largest in terms of numbers (nearly half a million Brazilians i.e. circa 5% of the Portuguese population) – was also greatly affected by this rhetoric’, she adds.
‘The impact of the rhetoric – in particular by André Ventura, chairman of the far-right party Chega – is direct on public services, on the way people are treated on a daily basis, on their rights and access. Immigration has been highly politicized in public discourse, and in a very negative way.’
In 2022, the Commission for Equality and against Discrimination (CICDR) reported that cases of xenophobia against Brazilians had increased exponentially, with reports of confrontations such as ‘it’s not my problem if you don’t know how to speak Portuguese’, ‘Brazilian women come here to steal our husbands’ and ‘you don’t understand anything, you’re stupid.’
A study by the Francisco Manuel dos Santos Foundation, published in 2024, indicated that five out of ten Portuguese citizens want the Brazilian presence in Portugal to decrease.
With the presidential elections later this month, Costa hopes that the Portuguese will elect someone who ‘values the rule of law, respects people and includes everyone in his mandate, as this is fundamental for democracy.’
In her assessment, the changes to the Foreigners Act (Lei de Estrangeiros) and the proposed amendments to the Nationality Act (Lei da Nacionalidade) have a clear objective of reducing the influx of immigrants. ‘The centre-right government demonstrates this on the argument of immigrant deregulation and lack of administrative capacity.’
‘But immigration was not deregulated,’ she explains! ‘Since the 1980’s we have had immigrant regulations in Portugal. And from an administrative capacity point of view, what happened is poor public administration, as is reflected in other public services, such as social security, health, housing and education, where there has been no investment over the years to enable people to exercise their rights, such as the right to obtain a valid residence permit in time.
‘In fact, this is a much bigger issue: there has been no investment whatsoever in the immigration service, and last year this has created huge administrative problems, especially in the transition from the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF)to the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum (AIMA).’
So, less bureaucracy in public services, more recognition of the importance of immigrants, better regularization of immigration, less hate speech, and more jobs, political awareness, respect for fellow citizens and protection for women.
That’s the 2026 wish list of Brazilians in Portugal.
Happy New Year Feliz Ano Novo (Pic Público/Sapo)