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Between 2001 and 2004 Portugal endorsed 100,282 stay permits to immigrants from Eastern Europe (Moldova, Ukraine, Russia and Romania). Stay permits granted through Law 4/2001 reveals the development of immigrant communities that previously were quantitatively of small significance. For the first time, Ukrainian, Romanian, Moldovan, and Russian immigrants appeared among the main immigrant groups in Portugal. This new migratory flow allowed taking conscience that immigration in Portugal was no longer confined to the traditional regions of destiny, but was increasingly spreading all over Portugal. More surprising than the post-colonial migration to Portugal however, has been the emergence of Eastern European migration where previous cultural links and existing migratory networks had been absent. Available empirical evidence obtained since this period, confirmed that this population is highly distinct from the previous migratory waves to Portugal. Two major surveys conducted by the research team of the Centro de Estudos Sociais in 2002 and 2004, characterized the migration from Eastern Europe to Portugal as a labour movement, rooted in the economic disparities existent between the two regions. In accordance with the results obtained, this movement occurred because: a) profit seeking organisations, particularly in the Ukraine, promoted migration to Portugal; b) the ongoing regularisation process of immigrant workers; c) an increase in demand for foreign workers in economic sectors, such as construction and tourism verified during the second half of the 1990s and the early years of the new millennium. However, what is today is an already a recognised fact is that even without new arrivals and with some departures, this sudden and unexpected migratory wave has drastically and substantially changed the composition of the immigrant population in Portugal and consolidates the position of Portugal in the European migratory system as a receiving country."
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