Foreigners in Portugal up 12% in 2020

Foreign citizens living in Portugal increased by 1 percent in 2020, compared to the previous year, totalling 660,000 immigrants with a residence permit.

In the parliamentary committee of Constitutional Affairs, Rights, Freedoms and Guarantees, Eduardo Cabrita informed the government that the foreign population increased 12 percent in 2020, having gone from 588,000 in 2019 to 660,000 during the last year.

Considering “immigration to Portugal as “positive”, the minister highlighted that “during the middle of the pandemic, a mechanism of online renewals of residence permits has already reached 100,000 immigrants, 11,000 of which who are higher education students, was introduced “.

The minister also stressed that the number of foreign citizens residing in Portugal has increased by 75 percent since 2015.