For five years, Peterson D. Albino planned to move to Portugal with his wife, a Portuguese citizen. The idea was to arrive and ask for family reunification, something he thought would be easy, since his partner has original citizenship (she is the granddaughter of Portuguese parents). He also imagined that it wouldn’t be difficult to get a job, for having a degree in information systems and having held senior positions in large companies in the sector in Brazil – the same for the wife. But the reality they face is different.
The 37-year-old immigrant sent DN Brazil an open letter in which he describes the bureaucratic difficulties that prevent him from having the life he planned in Portugal. The Social Security Registration Number (NISS) was denied for him twice and even for his Portuguese wife.
These barriers prevent him from having a job and benefits for his seven-year-old children and one-year-old baby, causing frustration and financial difficulties for the family. Read the open letter below, which he titled “The family man” that the Portuguese state chose to ignore”.
“I write to you not only as an immigrant, but as the face of a Portuguese family that, in the 21st century, is being pushed into poverty by the invisible hand of bureaucracy. I have been married to a Portuguese citizen for nine years. We have two children who carry in their hearts the pride of being Portuguese. However, since we landed in Portugal, in July 2024, our life has transformed into a daily exercise of survival and humiliation.
The law says that I have the right to residence because I am married to a national. The reality, however, is an insurmountable wall called AIMA. I’ve been trying to get an appointment for five months and it never arrives, and when I finally get one for April, I realize that until then I’m a “ghost” for the job market. The cost of waiting is hunger.
I saw my life savings disappear in 150 days. I was fired from jobs as soon as they discovered that I didn’t have a physical residence card. Recently, I experienced the greatest cruelty: I was told to resign from my current job to start working in a factory where my wife works. They guaranteed me the position, I visited the facilities and met the supervisor. On the day it started, the door closed: “Without the protocol number, there is no contract”.
Where is the error? In the citizen who wants to work or in the State that does not provide the protocol number until the day of the interview, months later? Today, I work as an assistant in a farm, but with an expiration date: December 31st. I will be dismissed again due to the lack of the document that the State denies me. Meanwhile, Social Security denies the benefit to my children and refuses me the NISS. It’s not a lack of will. It’s a lack of rights.
We are in Christmas week. As families gather, I look at my children and feel the weight of not being able to offer the minimum. I don’t ask for alms. I ask for compliance with the law. I ask for the right to support my family with my sweat, without being blocked by an administrative failure that is not mine.
I write this letter in the hope that this newspaper will be the megaphone for those who scream in silence at home today. If Portugal does not take care of the spouses and children of its own citizens, what future are we building? With the hope of those who still believe in justice.”
The letter ends with a verse by the Brazilian poet Cora Coralina. “We learn knowledge from books. Wisdom is learned from life and from the humble.”
amanda.lima@dn.pt