Last year, 4,408 Portuguese people immigrated to the United Kingdom, the lowest number in at least 13 years, according to British social security figures released on Thursday.
The British Ministry of Labor indicated this Thursday that fewer Portuguese people will register on social security in 2023 than in 2020 (6,664), when restrictions related to the Covid-19 pandemic caused a sudden drop in Portuguese immigration to the United Kingdom.
Registration for social security, which is mandatory to work or receive social support in the country, is one way to account for population flows.
The 2023 value represents a 44% drop compared to 7,941 Portuguese registrations in 2022. Sharpest decline since 2019.
A European immigration to the UK has also fallen Since the beginning of the process of exiting the country from the European Union in 2016.
This Thursday, the latest data on the European Union's citizen registration system was also released. [EU Settlement Scheme, EUSS]It has 506,440 Portuguese citizens applying for residence permits until December 31, 2023.
Of these, 278,600 Portuguese received permanent residency, 170,990 received temporary status and 56,840 had their processes rejected or invalidated.
The number of applications is not equal to the number of Portuguese residents in the United Kingdom, estimated at around 450 thousand, some are repeated.