About immigration

The debate on immigration in Portugal is non-existent. It has been captured by the emotional and anti-rational rhetoric of the far right, which has made it socially and mediatically noisy, but intellectually empty. What appears as a counterpoint—especially on the left or in certain sectors of Catholicism—is reduced to pious, supposedly humanist moralism, lacking practical frameworks or real solutions.

According to the Bank of Portugal, there are approximately half a million salaried immigrants, representing 13 percent of the workforce. They are concentrated in construction, catering, and agriculture. The same is true for those in an undocumented situation. These jobs require low qualifications, are precarious, poorly paid, and physically demanding.

Contrary to what the right-wing claims, immigrants don't come to Portugal seeking subsidies. They come to work. And they only move to where there are jobs. This is a historical constant. In the current context, marked by the structural backwardness of our business community, they are indispensable. Business associations—almost always aligned with the right—protest any measure that limits the flow of foreign labor. They need people to build the TGV and the new airport, but also to pick avocados and serve tourists in restaurants.

It's revealing that everyone—from the far left to the far right—agrees that the country needs immigrants. Some in the name of solidarity, others through repressive rhetoric. But everyone wants them here. What's rarely discussed is why, for what purpose, and with what horizon.

Portugal remains trapped in an economic model based on manual, repetitive, and brutal labor. In the Alentejo nurseries, vegetables are harvested by hand. In construction, people still climb scaffolding with buckets. Food deliveries are made by pedaling bicycles. For most entrepreneurs, automation remains science fiction. Hiring immigrants and keeping them in semi-slavery conditions is cheaper, simpler, and more profitable. It may work for now. But for how long? And who is actually preparing—not for the future, but for the present?

The transformation of work with artificial intelligence is already underway. First, machines replaced physical effort. Then, automation replicated routine tasks. Today, with AI, cognitive functions are also being automated: data analysis, operational decisions, customer service, diagnosis, translation. The center of value shifts from execution to design, supervision, and interpretation. Repetitive tasks lose importance. Creativity, critical thinking, and the ability to connect humans with intelligent systems gain prominence. Employment doesn't disappear, but its nature radically changes.

In agriculture, sensors and drones monitor crops, algorithms predict pests and water needs, and machines harvest fruit with precision. In construction, 3D printing, exoskeletons, drones, and algorithmic planning accelerate processes and reduce reliance on manual labor. Countries like China construct buildings in days, with minimal teams. In tourism, AI manages reservations, personalizes experiences, translates languages in real time, and replaces basic customer service with virtual assistants. Human contact becomes the exception, not the norm.

All of this requires investment, training, and vision. But here we insist on a model that imports hands instead of ideas, cheap labor instead of technology.

That's why, at the business level, we need to abandon the factory mentality and adopt a laboratory mentality. A new paradigm, where humans and artificial intelligence work together to create, design, and develop. Production and repetitive services are handled by machines.

In this scenario, the question of immigration takes on a different form. How long will we continue to depend on unskilled immigrants? And how do we expect to attract skilled immigrants if we only offer precarious conditions and primitive exploitation? Neither the government nor the opposition sees any structured response to these issues. Here, there remains a lack of ambition. And this won't be solved with more workers—it will be solved with more vision.

To seriously and consistently address this problem—the structural dependence on unskilled immigrant labor in a context of technological and economic backwardness—Portugal needs a coordinated strategy on several fronts.

Investing in industrial modernization is essential, as the recently deceased João Cravinho so often emphasized. But not with 20th-century factories. The focus should be on small production hubs based on robotics, artificial intelligence, and 3D printing, capable of responding quickly to niche markets. Agriculture and construction can directly benefit from these technologies.

Instead of subsidizing low wages or perpetuating incentives for precarious employment, the government should provide tax incentives for companies that adopt automated solutions and invest in the training of their workers. It is essential to create short, accessible, and practical technical training programs aimed at both nationals and immigrants. Instead of insisting on a slow and inadequate university system, we need to promote skills schools focused on AI, programming, robotics maintenance, and process management. What is currently taught about artificial intelligence is, in most cases, simply pathetic.

Portugal must stop being a country that attracts people solely through its climate and cost of living. It must create effective programs to attract international talent in technical and scientific fields. This entails decent working conditions, better salaries, fast qualification recognition processes, and, above all, a narrative of the future, not just survival.

Higher education institutions should be encouraged to function as true innovation laboratories, connected to local and regional needs, rather than diploma factories disconnected from economic reality. Partnerships with companies, municipalities, and technology centers are crucial to solving real problems through the application of knowledge.

Portugal cannot continue to compete from below. The only sustainable comparative advantage lies in added value. This requires a transformation of the economic paradigm: less mass tourism and intensive agriculture; more technology, more culture, more applied science, more creative production.

Finally, it's important to abandon improvisation and build a clear integration model: with goals, rights, obligations, and opportunities for advancement. Immigration shouldn't be thought of as disposable labor, but as an active and creative part of society.