The 2018 Immigration, Frontiers and Asylum Report (RIFA), released on the 43rd anniversary of the Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), showed that the number of foreigners residing in Portugal also rose for the third consecutive year.


The minister for Internal Affairs, Eduardo Cabrita, told reporters that the trend of increasing foreigners living in Portugal, which began in 2016, remains the same this year.


In a bid to improve services for foreigners in Portugal, the opening hours for SEF have been extended by the government.


“We decided to extend SEF service periods with an adjustment that allows immigration services to work between 8.30am and 8pm, thus increasing the capacity to respond,” said the minister.


“The demographic changes and the success of the Portuguese economy have determined that during the past three years, especially in 2018, there has been a significant growth of foreign residents,”said Eduardo Cabrita.


The minister stated that the country “considers it necessary and positive” the arrival to Portugal of students, workers, researchers and foreign investors.


Explaining the report’s data, the minister highlighted the increase in citizens from more traditional backgrounds, such as Brazil and Cape Verde, but also the “very positive” growth of immigrants from the United Kingdom, France and Italy, as well as from India, Nepal , Bangladesh and Venezuela.


“We have new origin countries, which are not yet in the ‘top ten’ but have in 2018 seen a very significant growth relating to sectors such as agriculture, construction and some areas of tourism,” he said referring to the increase of citizens from India, Nepal, Bangladesh and Venezuela.


According to the report, the highest level of increase of foreigners from a single country was from Italy, which saw an increase of 45.9 percent over 2017, with 18,862 Italians living in the country.


However, Brazilians continue to be one of the largest foreign communities in the country, with 105,423 inhabitants, the highest value since 2012.


The RIFA report also indicates that citizens from France continue to increase, totalling 19,771, a rise of 29.1 percent.
The list of the 10 nationalities residing in the country with most inhabitants includes Brazil (105,423), Cape Verde (34,663), Romania (30,908), Ukraine (29,218), United Kingdom (26,445), China (25,357), France (19,771), Italy (18,862), Angola (18,382) and Guinea-Bissau (16,186).


According to the report, more than two-thirds of foreigners (68.9 percent) reside in the districts of Lisbon (213,065), Faro (77,489) and Setúbal (40,209).