Traditionally regarded as an emigration country, Portugal became simultaneously an immigration country from the mid-1980s onwards. Flows of immigration into Portugal intensified in the 1990s mostly formed by foreign citizens from countries with colonial ties. In the early 2000s, the foreign population legally settled in the country duplicated after intense irregular inflows of citizens from Eastern European countries. The intensity of immigration flows declined substantially after the emergence of a deep financial crisis in the late 2000s, a trend that persists in the early 2010s. Remarkably, the Portuguese policy of immigration control was successively reformed by the distinct national governments formed since the 1990s. In the context of low politicisation of immigration, this analysis will examine the policy developments undertaken by the different party governments and highlight the observation of a client politics model in the early 2000s.
