More Than Half of Non-EU Graduates in Portugal Work in Jobs Below Their Qualifications, Nearly Four Times the Rate for Portuguese Graduates

Portugal is good at getting immigrants into work and much less good at using what they know, a new paper from the Observatório das Migrações (Migration Observatory) concludes. In 2025, 52.3 percent of employed citizens of non-EU countries who hold a university degree were working in jobs that did not need one. Among Portuguese graduates the figure was 14.1 percent.

The brief paper, "Emprego de imigrantes: Portugal no contexto europeu" (Immigrant employment: Portugal in the European context), was published on 9 October by the observatory, which sits within the Agência para a Integração, Migrações e Asilo (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum, AIMA). It builds on a July report comparing 20 EU countries by the Centre for Research and Analysis of Migration (CReAM), adding Eurostat and national data.

A wider gap than in the EU

Overqualification among third-country graduates in Portugal is 3.7 times the rate among nationals. Across the EU the ratio is about two to one: 41.4 percent against 20.0 percent. Eurostat places Portugal among the countries with high rates, alongside Czechia, Estonia, Spain and Italy.

The Portuguese figure rose from 48.7 percent in 2024, while the rate for nationals held steady at 14.2 and then 14.1 percent. The authors add a caution: Eurostat flags the 2025 estimate for foreigners in Portugal as of low reliability, because the sample is small.

The problem is not a lack of schooling, the paper argues. Citing Randstad Research, it says 31.6 percent of foreigners in Portugal have higher education, above the 27.4 percent average for foreigners across the EU. They are concentrated instead in administrative and support services (20.8 percent of foreign employment, against 9.8 percent for Portuguese workers), in hotels and restaurants (18.3 against 8.7 percent) and in agriculture, and about 30 percent work in unskilled occupations, against 14.5 percent of Portuguese workers.

Plenty of jobs, less security

On getting a job, Portugal compares well. Counting by country of birth, 75.6 percent of residents born outside the EU were employed in 2025, above the 73.4 percent of people born in Portugal and the EU average of 66.0 percent for non-EU-born residents. Portugal shares fourth place among the 20 countries with Estonia, and women born outside the EU have exactly the same employment rate as Portuguese-born women: 71.3 percent.

The quality of that work is another matter. In 2025, 33.7 percent of foreign employees were on temporary contracts, against 13.3 percent of nationals, and 17.8 percent of employed foreigners were at risk of poverty, against 8.0 percent. The unemployment rate of foreign women aged 25 to 64, 12.0 percent, was more than double that of Portuguese women (5.1 percent).

What the observatory recommends

First of its six lines of action is faster recognition of qualifications. Simplifying and shortening the recognition of degrees and access to regulated professions "has an immediate economic return", the paper says, especially in health, engineering and teaching, where skilled staff are scarce.

It also proposes short courses, skills certification and technical Portuguese to help people move into work that matches their training; more childcare and Portuguese classes for women; entry routes aimed at skilled work; and more labour inspection in the sectors that employ most foreigners.

The paper says its conclusions are the authors' own, not necessarily those of the observatory or AIMA. It comes in the same week the government named César Teixeira to lead AIMA, saying integration is now the priority.

If you hold a degree from outside Portugal, our guide to getting a foreign degree recognised in Portugal explains the routes available.