The regional director for Communities highlighted, today, the importance and added value that it represents, for the Azores, the presence of immigrants included in the society and qualified in their respective professional activities.

Alzira Silva, who was speaking in Ponta Delgada in the presentation of a study on the situation of the immigrants in the Region, defended the idea that of a good integration of all the foreign citizens who reside and work in the Azores there will, certainly, result very positive results for the Azorean society.

One of the indicators that characterizes a good integration in the Region, is, just, that that refers that most of the immigrants included and inquired by the study do not intend to return to their countries of origin and of these the vast majority intends to keep on living in the Azores.

The study prepared by the Employment and Vocational Training Observatory, in the sequence of a protocol signed between the Regional Directorate for Employment and Vocational Training and the Immigrants' Association in the Azores, had as purpose to characterize the situation of the immigration in the Azores in its labour and socio-professional aspects.

The inquired universe of immigrants revealed the existence of 3.796 individuals, having been obtained answers of 1.758, which corresponds to 46,3%.

There were found 41 different nationalities of citizens who live and work in all the islands of the Region, being the Brazilian community that of bigger expression, with 39%, followed by Cape Verde, with 26,4%, and that of the Ukraine, with 9,7%.

On the issue of skills, the study shows that more than 82% of the inquired ones has more than 10 years of schooling, and 16,2% of them have superior level skills.

In the area of the professional situation, the inquiry concludes that 86,2% are workers on account of somebody else, 8,2% are independent workers and 4,5% are bosses.

Of the employed workers, 96,7% is registered in the Social Security,  which is equally an indicator of full integration in the Azorean society and represents an appreciable level of stability.

As a matter of fact, the issue of the easiness of job is the first one of the reasons presented for the fact of having emigrated for the Azores to which follows the situation of already having relatives or friends living in the Region.

The vocational training, on its turn, arouses interest next to the immigrants with a vast majority showing intention of attending training courses in areas like the Portuguese Language, the computer science in the user’s optics, foreign languages and literatures, civil construction, hotel management and restaurants, metallurgy and metalomechanics, electricity and beauty cares.

In this respect, the regional director for Employment and Vocational Training, who was also present in the presentation of the document, pointed out the importance of knowing the reality for better deciding, so much that the immigrants in the Azores represent, at present, nearly 5% of the active working population of the Region.

For Rui Bettencourt, what matters is to better observe to better decide in the future, in terms of the qualification and the opening of vocational courses.

In what it refers to the familiar framing, the vast majority of the questioned immigrants is married or lives together, have children, some of them already born in the Azores, and live in leased houses or apartments.

On the subject of monthly profit of the respective families, 20,7% is situated between the 751 and 1.000 euros, 18,7% between the 401 and 520 euros, 16,1% between the 521 and 750 euros, and 13,1% between the 1.001 and 1.500 euros.

Another important factor that helps to characterize the degree of integration of the immigrants in the Azorean society is connected with the understanding and the fluency in the Portuguese Language, the study revealed that more than 72% of the inquired ones thinks that they understand very well or well the Portuguese Language and more than 23% have a satisfactory degree of understanding. Only 4,1% understands badly or very badly the Portuguese Language.