The Regional Secretary of the Presidency said at the 2nd Meeting of Returning Emigrants, which was held in Angra do Heroísmo on the Island of Terceira on Saturday, that “the Regional Government attaches great importance to emigrants returning to the Azores by organising this initiative addressed at this community which is now in its second edition.”

For André Bradford, these meetings are intended to create “symbolic moments that unequivocally demonstrate the importance the Government attaches to the emigrants who have left the Azores, but who have returned after two or three decades to re-settle in their homeland.”

“For us, this attachment is an important concern that has led to the organisation of such meetings which are very relevant and we intend to keep them,” said the Regional Secretary.

The government official considers that the issue of returning emigrants “requires some care with regard to public policies and the monitoring of the Azorean because this community is made up of people of a certain age, the majority of whom are pensioners who maintain bureaucratic, institutional and emotional ties with the countries where they have emigrated”; therefore, the “the Government has to face the challenge of finding specific actions to monitor this community.”

André Bradford reminded that the Government “has a well developed and coherent policy regarding the monitoring of emigrant communities outside the Azores. In addition, the implementation of political measures for the immigrant communities residing in the Region has been another growing concern of the Government in recent years.”

The government official responsible for overseeing the area of communities, highlighted the role played by the Regional Directorate for Communities whose “service is largely addressed at the community of returning emigrants, providing them with legal, and legal counselling as well as at  the actions developed in the countries where they have emigrated.”

André Bradford said the knowledge the Government acquired on the community of returning emigrants, which is the result of the “specific and scientific studies that have been conducted in collaboration with the Centre for Social Studies of the University of the Azores, through which we became acquainted with its constitution, its distribution in the Azores Islands and the problems it faces.”

“With the knowledge the Government acquired regarding these emigrants, we are able to develop a series of specific and effective actions among this community,” concluded the Regional Secretary of the Presidency.