“We should want immigrants to seek out the Azores because they recognise in the archipelago, and in the Azoreans, a capacity to welcome people, a capacity to support them. But the truth is that we have to be more agile and more concrete and less complicated in the support we provide”, said the PS deputy in the Azorean parliament, Marlene Damião.

The socialist deputy from the Azores was speaking to journalists after a visit by the PS/Azores parliamentary group to the company JR & Filhos - Serralharia Artística, in the municipality of Ponta Delgada, on the island of São Miguel, where three immigrant workers are employed.

Marlene Damião said that the metalworking company in question "had more" immigrant workers in the past, but that for "reasons associated with legalisation and lack of support", they were forced to return to their countries.

"We will present concrete proposals, within the scope of a draft resolution, which aims to focus on the legalisation, integration, training and qualification of new staff using our immigrants", stressed the deputy, stating that the PS/Azores parliamentary group is open to contributions from all parties in the Regional Legislative Assembly.

The objective is to "set the tone to try to find the best, quickest and most effective solution to respond to the problems that companies have" in the process of recruiting immigrant labour, he added.

"We already have more than 7,000 immigrants living in the Azores. It is necessary to create partnerships and synergies with associations that work in the sector and that can, through this route, advise, judge and guide immigrants, because many want to work but do not know which door to knock on and when they do knock, there are many obstacles in place", he pointed out.

The socialist deputy highlighted that the lack of labour in the Azores "is one of the biggest challenges" that the region faces and that it has affected sectors such as tourism, and civil construction, but also areas such as metalworking, transport and agriculture.

"In meetings with several companies from different sectors, one of the shared concerns is the difficulty in recruiting labour. There are immigrants, as we know from meetings held with the Association of Immigrants of the Azores, who have been trained in areas where there are gaps and that this human capital can and should be used”.

Marlene Damião stated that this is a plan that "calls on all Azoreans, but that mainly calls on the Regional Government, which has the mission and duty to resolve this issue".