Regional Government met with parliamentary parties on immigrants’ right to social mobility aid
The Regional Secretary for Parliamentary Affairs and Communities, Paulo Estêvão, announced today that he has met with the parties in the National Assembly to bring political forces closer to the vote this Friday on including the right of all resident immigrants to social mobility aid.
This Friday, the National Assembly will debate and vote on a bill, which received unanimous support from the Legislative Assembly of the Autonomous Region of the Azores. It was developed to demonstrate the urgent need to reconsider the interpretation of the law that deprives some immigrants of their right to allowance.
“The feedback we received gives the Azorean Government hope for a favourable outcome to the matter,” Paulo Estêvão stressed, speaking today at a press conference in Horta.
The government official recalled that the current interpretation gave rise to a situation in which about 2,500 immigrant citizens – out of a total of about 6,500 – in the Azores were excluded from the rules on access to social mobility aid.
Paulo Estêvão noted that he was accompanied at the meetings by Leoter Viegas, President of AIPA – Association of Immigrants in the Azores, who presented the members of the National Assembly with examples of situations that had come to the organisation’s attention.
The Regional Secretary, accompanied by the Regional Director for the Communities, José Andrade, also offered words of solidarity to those affected by the Los Angeles fire.
This county is officially home to 25,763 citizens who declared themselves Portuguese in the 2020 census. In recent days, the Regional Government has been in contact with the Secretary of State for Portuguese Communities, the Honorary Consul of Portugal in Los Angeles, the House of the Azores of California, the Portuguese Beyond Borders Institute at California State University and the Azorean Diaspora Adviser for the State of California.
“We have received reassuring information from everyone about the current situation of Portuguese communities in general and Azorean communities in particular,” stated the Regional Director for the Communities.
