The politicisation of immigration in the Portuguese government

Migration has been a contentious topic in Europe in recent years with increasing politicisation of immigration issues. Hence, as narratives matter, changes concerning integration policies, competition in party politics, or agenda-setting have occurred. In Portugal, government narratives about migration present variations across time and according to the ruling political party in each period. This article addresses the politicisation of immigration issues and its expression in the Portuguese government agenda-setting. We followed a qualitative approach, applying a content analysis framework concerning time, policy areas, type of government, and party alignment to compare the government programs in the democratic period (1976-2019). Government programs are a key constitutional document voted by the Parliament defining the main policy outputs in several areas of governmental activity. So, they are a fundamental instrument to comprehend the intentions (sometimes dissimilar from the actual practices) of the government for each mandate as well as to understand the national agenda-setting. Apart from an extensive characterisation about the presence of migration in the agenda-setting for all democratic governments in the country, the results show crises as 9/11, the Great Recession, or 2015 “migration crisis” are responsible for increasing politicisation. Beyond the consequences of the late dissolution of Portugal’s African empire in the 1970s, these events are the drivers leading governments to consider more immigration issues in their agenda despite the lack of increasing or pressuring immigration flows. Thus, the growing politicisation in the government was mainly due to external drivers imported first from the global security agenda and then from the European context.