« Nouvelle » immigration, marché du travail et compétitivité des régions portugaises

This paper focuses the relationship between immigration and regional development potential, taking as a reference the labour market functions and the regional settlement patterns of the most recent immigration wave that arrived in Portugal. This immigration wave is mainly composed by eastern europeans, particularly ukrainians, russians, moldavians and romanians, and displays several novel features when compared to the previous non-EU immigration wave dominated by foreigners coming from the portuguese speaking countries of Africa and Brazil (also relevant in the most recent wave). These novel features correspond to a higher level of education and training and also to a higher level of geographical spreading by the portuguese regions. The analysis of this new geographical pattern, that leads the entire country to participate in the immigration process, is related to the dynamics of the local economic fabrics, the segmented needs of the corresponding regional labour market basins, the competitivity strategies developed by the entrepreneurial structures and also to other variables associated to the regional development processes. The article is structured in 3 parts. The first one sets the scenery for the analysis and provides an overview of the regional development trajectories (convergence vs divergence) both of Portugal and the Portuguese regions in the late 1980s and the 1990s. The second one relates the contemporary regional patterns of international immigration with the socio-economic features and development dynamics of the several portuguese regions. The third part corresponds to the conclusion and stresses the potentially positive effects associated to the presence of the “new immigrants” in the non-metropolitan regions (qualifications increase associated to eventual innovation processes, stimulus over regional demand, opening up of new social and economic contacts). However, it also mentions that the present incorporation strategies of these frequently over-qualified workers is contributing to sustain defensive entrepreneurial options based in low-salaries and in a low level of innovation that do not foster the necessary qualification process of the Portuguese enterprises.