Políticas migratorias comparadas en el Sur de Europalecciones cruzadas entre España y Portugal

Abstract

This report constitutes a comparative analysis of immigrants' integration policies in Spain and Portugal. Portugal has been selected as a compared case study because of its excellent results in recent researches carried on this subject (PNUD, 2009; MIPEX, 2007), and because of the lack of compared literature on this field between this two neighbouring countries, similar both socially and culturally. The comparison focuses on the analysis of indicators of integration, the study of recent legislative reforms addressing immigration issues in both countries and the analysis of integration policies for immigrants. This research allows the reader to know the role of immigration both in the Portuguese and the Spanish societies. Furthermore, it provides an overview on the similarities and differences in integration policies. Both Portugal and Spain share a positive and inclusive perspective on immigrant population and they both have recently extended rights to this population sector, thus, swimming against the tide of the wider European context, where the xenophobic feelings and the electoral support to xenophobe parties are rising. Finally, the author ascertains a series of political recommendations in order to support integration processes in Portuguese and Spanish societies.