As writes Nezavisimaya Gazeta, the main one is possession of a work contract concluded with a local firm or private contractor. On average across the country, up to 700-800 immigrants are legalized per day.
According to various sources, over the past period about 18,000 illegal immigrants have received a temporary residence visa. Interestingly, Ukrainians hold the palm for legalization, pushing Brazilians into second place. And in third place are Moldovans, who were the first from the CIS countries to start developing the Iberian Peninsula in the early 1990s. According to local press reports, of the first 11,000 legalized immigrants, three thousand are Ukrainians. Another striking feature of the ongoing legalization process is that immigrants from Eastern European countries, mainly from Ukraine, Moldova, Romania and Russia, are as numerous as immigrants from Africa.
It is expected that by the end of the year between 100,000 and 150,000 immigrants will obtain the right to temporary residence and work on a legal basis. This will almost double the number of legal immigrants in the country. In the spring of last year, in an interview with NG, Fernando Gomes, then Portugal's Minister of Internal Affairs, cited the number of legal immigrants in the country: 210,000. Moreover, 160,000 of them are from former Portuguese colonies in Africa. However, when asked by a journalist about the number of illegal immigrants in the country, the minister only spread his hands. 'If only we knew!' he frankly admitted. But then he caught himself and said that 'there are about 20,000 of them.' According to local press estimates, this number was close to 50,000.
After Portugal's accession to the European Community in 1986, the influx of immigrants intensified, reversing the previous trend. In the early 1980s, they were exclusively Africans. Mainly people from former Portuguese colonies, who were forced to leave their homeland by internal armed conflicts and economic hardships, and to reach the former metropolis by hook or by crook. It was Africans who became the main unskilled labor force in the country. With their participation, hundreds of kilometers of highways, dozens of new residential areas, largest shopping and cultural centers, a record-breaking bridge across the Tagus River in Lisbon, pavilions of the Expo 98 world exhibition, and much more were built.
Then, as the standard of living in Portugal rose thanks to generous European Union subsidies, and a protracted economic crisis hit Brazil on the opposite side of the Atlantic, many Brazilians appeared in Lisbon. Very quickly they flooded the service sector.
In the early 1990s, another wave of immigrants flooded the country. Initially, these were Roma from Romania and Moldova. Many of them led their usual lifestyle: women and children begged, while men either worked where they could or engaged in petty and major theft, specializing in apartment burglaries and car thefts. All this is now in the past, and several hundred Romanians and Moldovans, whose language has common roots with Portuguese, have successfully passed all phases of the complex process of legalization and naturalization. Most of them are employed in contract work or in housing construction.
In the last two or three years, in the capital, as well as in the cities of Porto, Gaia, Braga, Aveiro, Viseu, Almada, Setubal, Faro and many others where large-scale construction is underway, and often in the most unexpected places, one can meet citizens from many CIS countries, mainly Ukrainians and Moldovans.
In the spring of last year, in the seaside town of Estoril, right opposite the Paris Hotel, where the great chess player Alekhine lived in the 1940s, they began to put in order an abandoned four-story house. I risked pushing the high side gate and immediately found myself in a world sharply different from the elegant street: laundry on lines, an improvised kitchen, and a dining table made of crates. This was a group of Ukrainian workers who had settled in the house they were renovating. The owner of a small construction company who had received the contract for the building's restoration said he was quite satisfied with the workers. 'They do everything themselves, and they don't need any explanations. I only deliver construction materials... I have no problems with them. With Africans, for example, you need an eye and an eye, but these,' and he pointed to the Ukrainians, 'work very well.'
After the collapse of the USSR, Russians also began to settle in Portugal gradually. First of all, doctors, especially surgeons and dentists, physics and mathematics teachers, coaches, athletes, theater directors, businessmen, and others.
Currently in Portugal, according to various sources, there are between 30,000 and 50,000 people from CIS countries. More than half of them are Ukrainians, Moldovans, and Romanians. Occasionally, reports appear in the local press about '100,000 Russians,' which is greatly exaggerated. Moreover, it should be known that all people from the former USSR are automatically classified, even in the police, as 'Russians,' because for the vast majority of them Russian is the only language of communication.
Even immigrants from Eastern Europe who speak a foreign language experience great difficulties communicating in Portugal, since the majority of the population does not speak any foreign language. A report just published in Sweden shows that in this regard Portugal takes the penultimate place among European Union countries: 56.3% of Portuguese know only their native language. Unlike, for example, Luxembourg, where only 2.2% of the population does not know any foreign language.
The problems of illegal immigration and assistance to forced immigrants from Ukraine were raised during the official three-day visit of President Leonid Kuchma to Portugal in December last year. Lisbon and Kiev signed a number of important consular agreements on this issue. This year, the Portuguese government intends to propose signing similar agreements to Moscow.
Illegal immigrants from CIS countries work mainly in housing construction and on the largest construction sites. The country is starting to build new stadiums for the 2004 European Football Championship, beginning construction of a new international airport and another bridge over the Tagus River. Cheap labor is used to the maximum by everyone: from small repair subcontractors to large enterprises and companies.
Due to their conscientious work and high educational level, illegal immigrants from Eastern Europe are gradually conquering other sectors as well. In the Algarve, on the southern coast of the country, they have already appeared in the restaurant and hotel sector and in agriculture, and in the north – at textile and other factories. Unlike immigrants from Africa, who prefer to settle in dense groups in the greater Lisbon area, white immigrants are not afraid to spread throughout the country.
Needless to say, immigrants are exploited without any scruples. For contractors, firms, and factories, they are cheap labor, ready to work unlimited hours and under any payment terms. Owners of boarding houses and rented rooms and apartments also do not miss their chance. And there are countless cases of outright fraud, when contractors or other employers suddenly disappear without paying illegal workers. They know that they will not go to the police or court.
Moreover, it has now become clear that many contractors work illegally (to avoid paying taxes) and therefore cannot conclude official contracts with hired workers. And it is this document that is necessary for the legalization of immigrants. The legalization process has also provided an easy source of income for local lawyers, who have inflated prices for "paperwork" excessively.
Although many illegal immigrants openly tell local journalists that they are treated "like white slaves," most are optimistic. Some came to "just earn money and give the family left at home a chance to survive." Or to "help their children get an education at home." Others would like to "bring their family to Portugal." This is especially often heard from Ukrainians. Apparently, they are more mobile, or living conditions at home have become unbearable. It is noteworthy that many came from Western Ukraine.
Now Ukrainians tell journalists that they are saving money "for the family's arrival" and plan "to start building a new life here." However, the new law number 4/2001 does not provide for such a development. That is, it limits the stay of legal immigrants in the country to five years, which, as we know, fly by very quickly. And what will happen to them later, when the period of large construction in Portugal ends and temporary visas expire?
"Ukraine, Moldova, Romania, and Russia are countries with nearly destroyed economies, politically disorganized and far from safe, where people die from cold. And is it not natural for immigrants to want to stay in Portugal, where life is not so hard?" wrote a journalist from the capital's newspaper "Diário de Notícias" the other day. "This problem will inevitably confront Portugal in the long term," she concludes. However, what worries the journalist most is the question of "the mafia from the east that comes along with the immigrants." It is known that where there is a mafia, there is organized crime and particularly serious crimes. According to the newspaper, the authorities are already beginning to ask themselves: "What will happen when the mafia from the east merges with local criminal structures?"