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Migrants

Migrants

Ensuring effective equality in access to essential services

Children and young people who, due to their origin or condition, are in a situation of particular vulnerability, more specifically, young immigrants, refugees or from minority groups, namely from Portuguese Roma communities, due to the specificity and seriousness of the problems and barriers to which they are exposed, should be able to access a set of measures and initiatives aimed at promoting equal opportunities.

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Inclusion of Particularly Vulnerable Children and Young People

4 measures

1

Extension of support services for the integration of migrants throughout the national territory CLAIM and CNAIM

Extension of support services for the integration of migrants throughout the national territory CLAIM and CNAIM

  • Local Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CLAIM)
What are they?
The Local Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CLAIM) are reception, information and support offices/spaces whose mission is to support the whole process of reception and integration of migrants, coordinating with the various local structures, and promoting interculturality at a local level.

 

  • What is their purpose?
These offices/spaces provide support and general information in various areas, such as regularisation, nationality, family reunification, housing, voluntary return, work, health, education, among other everyday issues.
 
The CLAIM Network also has specialised Local Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CLAIM), which intervene in different areas, in order to complement and solidify their integration process.

 

  • CLAIM Network
It is a network of reception, information and support services whose objective is to promote the integration of migrants at the local level. In some regions, these CLAIM services are provided on an itinerary basis, i.e., they go to places where the migrants are and who otherwise would not have access to them, whether due to lack of mobility or lack of other resources.
 
Currently, there are 169 Local Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CLAIM), distributed from north to south of mainland Portugal and in the islands. 

 

Click on the following link to see the contacts of all the Local Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants: CLAIM.

  • Responsible entity
Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum - AIMA
 

  • National Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CNAIM)
What are they?
The National Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CNAIM) were established in 2004 in order to respond to different difficulties experienced by migrants in their integration process in Portugal.
 
Cultural, organisational and legislative differences, along with the number of different services that migrants have to resort to, led the High Commissioner for Migration to create a place that would bring together different services, institutions and offices to support migrants in the same space. A space designed especially for migrants.

 

  • What is their purpose?

The purpose of the National Support Centres for the Integration of Migrants (CNAIM) is to facilitate the interaction between the migrants and the various public services that deal with immigration matters, in a single space. These services are, namely: the Foreigners and Borders Service, the Social Security Institute, the Authority for Working Conditions, the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Education.

  • Responsible entity

Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum - AIMA

2

Teaching of Portuguese as a Non-Mother Tongue

Teaching of Portuguese as a Non-Mother Tongue

  • What is it?

The teaching of Portuguese as a Non-Mother Tongue and/or specific support measures in the 1st, 2nd and 3rd cycles of basic education level, in scientific-humanistic courses and specialized artistic courses of the secondary education level, as well as professional courses of the secondary education level, with dual school and professional certification.

For newcomers to the national educational system, with a view to promoting equity and equal opportunities, the school, in cooperation with the students’ parents or guardians, may provide educational responses that facilitate access to the school curriculum, through the mobilisation of measures to support learning and inclusion, namely:

  • The promotion of progressive integration into the curriculum, through the attendance of selected teaching activities, based on the sociolinguistic profile and educational background of the students, in order to strengthen the learning of the Portuguese language and its development as a school language;
  • The development of other intervention projects approved by the school, under the favourable opinion of the Directorate-General for Education (DGE - Direção-Geral da Educação) or the National Agency for Qualification and Vocational Education and Training, P.I. (ANQEP, I.P. – Agência Nacional para a Qualificação e o Ensino Profissional, I.P.), depending on the educational and training offer attended.

 

Education and teaching establishments, within the scope of their autonomy and educational project, must provide students with other activities that enhance language immersion, interpersonal relationships, inclusion in school and sense of belonging, such as tutoring and mentoring, clubs and school sports.

  • Who is covered?
Students, aged between 6 and 18, newcomers to the educational system who do not have Portuguese as their mother tongue or who have not had Portuguese as their language of schooling and for whom, according to their educational background and sociolinguistic profile, the school considers to be the most appropriate curriculum offer.
 
  • Responsible entity
Ministry of Education 
 
  • Contacts
    Address: Av. 24 de Julho, n.º 140 - 4.º 1399-025 LISBOA
    Phone no.: 21 393 45 00
    Email: dge@dge.mec.pt 
3

Choices Programme

Choices Programme

  • What is it?
The Choices Programme’s mission is to promote social integration, equal opportunities in education and employment, combat social discrimination, promote civic participation and strengthen social cohesion.
 
The Choices Programme is structured in three intervention areas:
  • Education, Digital Inclusion, Training and Qualification;
  • Employment and Entrepreneurship;
  • Community dynamization, Health, Participation and Citizenship.
  • Who is covered?
Children and young people aged 6 to 25, particularly those from social and economically vulnerable contexts, who are in one or more of the following situations:
  • School absenteeism;
  • School failure;
  • Early school leaving;
  • Young NEETs;
  • Unemployment;
  • Deviant behaviours;
  • Subject to educational guardianship measures;
  • Subject to promotion and protection measures;
  • Imprisoned;
  • Victims of any form of violence.
 
  • Where is this programme implemented?
This programme is implemented in several neighbourhoods and parishes in Portugal, with the objective of developing several crime prevention and youth integration projects.

 

  • Responsible entity
The State Secretariat for Equality and Migrations and the High Commissioner for Migration (ACM, I.P.).

 

4

ROMA Educa Programme

ROMA Educa Programme

  • What is it?
The ROMA Educa scholarship programme, developed by the High Commissioner for Migration, provides for the award of 120 scholarships to students from Roma communities to support their attendance and continuation of the 3rd cycle of basic education and the secondary education level. The main objective of this programme is to combat school absenteeism among Roma communities.
 
This programme provides for a cash support of €450 per year, paid to each scholarship holder upon presentation of attendance and positive behaviour.
 
  • Who is entitled?
Students from Roma communities residing in the national territory, who are enrolled and attending the 3rd cycle of basic education (7th, 8th and 9th grades), or the secondary
education level (10th, 11th and 12th grades), or a course equivalent to these education levels.

 

  • How can I apply? What forms and documents do I have to submit?
The application must be submitted through the online form, accessible here, accompanied by the documents provided for in article 11(1) of the Regulation. Any application that is
not accompanied by all the supporting documents may be excluded from the examination process. 
 
  • Responsible entity
High Commissioner for Migration 
 
  • Contact:

naci@acm.gov.pt