One of the indicators in this report, which refers to the years 2019 and 2020, shows that "like other social phenomena, there are some misperceptions around the relationship between immigration and social inclusion or social protection".

According to the data present in the report, this positive balance was €884 million in 2019 – “the highest value ever achieved” – and €802.3 million in 2020.

This is because, in the relationship between the contributions of foreigners and what they benefit from the social security system, immigrants contribute with a substantially higher value than the one they have back, a “very positive and favourable relationship in Portugal”.

In 2019, for example, this contribution was 995.5 million euros, however, they only received 111.1 million euros in social benefits, which gives a positive balance of 884 million euros.

In 2020, this positive balance drops slightly to 802.3 million euros, taking into account that despite having contributed with 1,075.2 million euros, they benefited from 273 million in social benefits.

On the other hand, the report states that, “as in previous years”, immigrants show that they have a greater capacity to contribute than nationals, as they have 64 contributors for every one hundred residents, against 45 Portuguese taxpayers for every one hundred residents.

“Foreigners, compared to the total number of residents in Portugal, continue to have fewer beneficiaries of social benefits per total number of taxpayers: in 2020, in the case of foreigners, the ratio is 52 per 100 taxpayers, while for the total number of residents a ratio is 83 beneficiaries for every 100 contributors”, says the report.

The report also demonstrates that “immigrants play a key role in the efficiency of labour markets”.

According to the data in the report, in 2019 Portugal reached the unprecedented figure of 590,348 foreigners residing in the country (5.7% of the total number of residents), surpassing half a million foreign residents, a figure that rises to more than 662 thousand in 2020 .