This most recent edition of the annual statistical report from Portugal's Observatório das Migrações analyses statistical and administrative data for 2020 and 2021.

The report focuses on such topics as migratory flows, demography, education and skills, social inclusion, labour market participation, housing, health, justice, language and remittances. Key findings are summarised below.

Poverty

The report highlights a reduction in the risk of poverty and social exclusion faced by both migrants and natives in Portugal: in 2020 the risk was measured at 20.2% for all  foreigners (only one percentage point higher than for Portuguese nationals), while in 2013 the same figure stood much higher at 48.8% for all foreigners (22.8 percentage points higher than for nationals).

Labour market participation

The participation of foreign citizens  in the Portuguese labour market is not necessarily reflective of their qualifications: in 2020, 11.4% of all foreign individuals with higher education degrees worked in job groups at the bottom of the 'labour hierarchy' (7.7 percentage points higher than Portuguese natives). They often work in restaurants and the food supply sector.

Self-employment

In 2020, a higher proportion of third-country nationals were self-employed (17.4%) than Portuguese natives (13%) or employed EU-nationals (13.9%). There was found to be a particularly high number of both people from Brazil (27.6% of foreign employers) and people from China (16%) among the main nationalities of foreign employers.

Social Security

According to the 2017/2019 edition of the European Values Study, Portugal is one of the few countries where the majority of the population believes that immigrants are not a burden upon national social security systems. Following the trend of the last decade, in Portugal the relationship between contributions by foreigners and their counterparts to the Portuguese Social Security system continued to show a positive balance of +802.3 million euros in 2020.

The full report can be found attached below, or read online here.