José Luís Carneiro was confronted with the question of whether the process will be ready to respond to challenges such as World Youth Day, which takes place in August in Lisbon, or the growth of tourism in Portugal.

“The ongoing change is what allows the country to have the means to respond to these new needs. When we are talking about adding the PSP and GNR forces to the regulation and border security device, we are talking about 40,000 officers that are now available – provided they are trained and that is what we are doing – to support the regulation at air, sea and land borders”, said José Luís Carneiro.

The minister added that "the Judiciary Police and inspectors from the Foreigners and Borders Service will help in the fight against illegal immigration and organised crime networks".

“The system is more capable,” he guaranteed.

The minister added that “the Portuguese have to be collectively aware that there are Portuguese communities in almost 190 countries” and that “there is no region in the world without Portuguese communities”.

“This status of the Portuguese as citizens of the world has to be a starting point for us to understand the phenomenon of migration. The demographic challenge is the most complex challenge the European Union has to overcome”, he said, adding that “the European Union has to promote its social rejuvenation”.

The official also revealed that immigrants contributed 1,500 million euros to the Portuguese economy in 2022.

"In 2022, we had 650,000 foreign workers, a fourfold increase compared to 2015. They now represent 13.5% of contributions, 1,800 million euros, five times more than in 2015,” he said.

SEF data show that the foreign population legally residing in Portugal increased in 2022 for the seventh consecutive year, totalling 757,252, and the Brazilian community was the one that grew the most, in addition to being the most numerous.

At the end of last year, there were 233,138 Brazilians residing in Portugal.