The International Organization for Migration (IOM) warned today that a sexual stereotype still persists about Brazilian immigrant women in Portugal, in a report published this Tuesday (7) which also highlights the high number of Portuguese men who emigrated, therefore leaving the country.
In the 2024 World Migration Report, the United Nations framework addressed global migration trends and highlighted that “stereotypes of women’s hypersexuality in destination countries have also affected migrant women, such as Venezuelans in Peru and Brazilians in Portugal, stigmatizing them.” them as prostitutes and leading to increased risks of suffering sexual harassment and gender-based violence”.
In a report that includes almost all countries in the world, the IOM also recalled the impact that the Covid-19 pandemic had on the migration process.
The pandemic “led some countries to take exceptional measures to respond to the increased needs of migrants in an irregular situation”, says the report, which highlights the Portuguese case.
“At the beginning of 2020, Portugal acted quickly, temporarily regularizing the status of all migrants”, report the authors, highlighting that Italy followed the Portuguese example, with “a specific regularization for migrant workers in key sectors of the economy”.
Regarding the departure of Portuguese people from the country, the IOM highlights that Portugal was among the 20 countries with the highest relative number of emigrants in 1995, a number that dropped in 2020, according to the authorities’ accounting.
Regarding the gender profile of emigration, Italy and Portugal are the two European countries that have more male emigrants than females, according to the IOM.
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