Portugal
From international law to national law
This chapter will describe the Portuguese national legislation regulating integration and inclusion policies in the field of migration. Three levels of analysis will be addressed: (i) the recognition of general international law and conventional international law in the Portuguese legal system; (ii) national regulations that adopt integration and inclusion policies; (iii) national regulations that demonstrate a concern with gender issues.
As regards point (i), Article 8 of the Constitution of the Portuguese Republic contains clauses incorporating rules of international law. The automatic reception rule (article 8/1) determines that norms from general international law are automatically incorporated into the national legal system. Norms deriving from conventional international law (article 8/2), on the other hand, must go through an internal ratification procedure. As an example of the first case, there is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which contains imperative ius cogens norms, and unable of being derogated. The example that illustrates the second situation is given through the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. According to the constitutional precept of article 8 these international norms are part of the Portuguese legal system and, therefore, susceptible of application by the judicial bodies.
In point (ii), it is important to enhance the regulation resulting from the approach of integration and inclusion in the field of migration. The following instruments are of particular importance: The National Implementation Plan of the Global Pact on Migration and the Strategic Plan for Migration 2015-2020. These two mechanisms work on the issues of integration and inclusion through measures aimed at immigrant integration policies, policies to promote the integration of new nationals, policies to coordinate migratory flows, policies to strengthen migratory legality and the quality of migratory services and policies to encourage, accompany and support the return of emigrant national citizens.
With regard to point (iii), it is important to underline the Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) designed to support the reception capacity of immigrants, improve the quality of asylum procedures and promote the integration of immigrants at local and regional level. A specific program, produced through the Creation of the Project Team on Intersectional Inequalities (Deliberation No. 227/2019) aims to develop and implement gender-sensitive integration policies for migrants, refugee persons and asylum seekers, with particular attention to situations where different inequalities intersect. This team has the main attribution of transversals gender issues in policies, activities and services for integration of migrants, including refugees and gypsies.
The case study that best illustrates this chapter is the success story “It’s a love story, yes”. The story is accessible in https://viw.pixel-online.org/case_view.php?id=NDE=.
References
Migrant Integration Policy Index 2020 - Portugal
https://www.mipex.eu/portugal
Information on integration policies in various fields, among which anti-discrimination measures, education, nationality and access to health.
Migrantes - PLANOS DE INTEGRAÇÃO PARA MIGRANTES
https://www.om.acm.gov.pt/documents/58428/183863/Revista+Migra%C3%A7%C3%B5es+13.pdf/e28a232a-29e2-4345-8d63-0f7651ffd25f
This article refers to a comparative analysis between Australia’s immigration programme and the good practices for Portugal’s Strategic Plan for Migrations (pp 89-108).