Latest news and stories about integration in education in Portugal for expats and residents.
The municipality of Vila Nova de Poiares in the Coimbra district is launching a new Portuguese language course for foreign residents. Starting in September, the program is designed to help English-speaking expats improve their language skills and support their integration into the local community.
The National Education Council highlights that access to Portuguese as a Non-Native Language is insufficient, while the Council of Portuguese Communities prepares to discuss educational and electoral reforms with the government.
An Aver-o-Mar school, in Póvoa de Varzim, is considered a success story in student integration.
Immigration, with integration, enriches the countries where it settles.
The University of Évora has opened a local migrant integration support centre to assist the foreign community attending the institution.
The university rector specified that, of the approximately 10,000 students at the University of Évora, nearly 650 are international students, “of whom about 600 are from outside the European Union”.
The educational project is “not a sum of projects, nor isolated initiatives”, but “organised into five pillars: caring, thinking, creating, participating and qualifying”, according to the councillor for Education.
International residents looking to move beyond textbook Portuguese will be able to practise the language over coffee, on nature walks, with local craftspeople and even during the medronho harvest in The post Learn Portuguese in inland Algarve’s Querença appeared first on Portugal Resident.
We cannot continue to demand pedagogical miracles while allowing for family lack of accountability and formal ignorance.
The University of Coimbra is part of a new European initiative that provides a free resource to assist in teaching the Portuguese language to migrant and refugee populations.
The guide was published as part of the Communikite project, which includes the University of Coimbra. It provides a catalogue of non-verbal language and testimonies from other migrants.
Document presents practical activities to promote linguistic and cultural inclusion.
A new complete Portuguese language beginner’s course starts this month at the Europa Algarve language centre in Loulé. Mary Jo Morgan from Europa Algarve said: “The advantage of group lessons The post Language lessons appeared first on Portugal Resident.
16 of the projects are located in the Greater Lisbon and West regions. The initiatives include mobile units, digital platforms, and professional training programs.
The “Babel Classroom” platform allows teachers to lecture normally in Portuguese, while their speech is automatically transcribed and translated in real-time into up to four languages.
The 1990 Orthographic Agreement returns, and will return, just as poorly resolved problems always do. They tried to convince us that the matter was closed. It is not.
More than 100 projects have been submitted to the first edition of the “Friends of Brazil” competition, organised by the Consulate-General of Brazil in Lisbon. As entries require at least two students, over 200 pupils are involved in this initiative aimed at integration and combating xenophobia. The entries include 31 essays, 14 videos, and 62 drawings, with the highest participation coming from students in grades 5 to 8 across various Portuguese municipalities. A jury will select the winners by May 25th, evaluating criteria such as creativity, knowledge of Brazil, and the promotion of friendship and interculturality between Brazil and Portugal. Winning groups will receive cash prizes, and the three teachers with the most registered groups will win a trip to Brazil.
The retired professor, former Portuguese ambassador to UNESCO and former presidential candidate, considers there to be a “serious problem” in the sciences where the English language overrides other languages. He also points to a challenge: learning Portuguese as a means of integrating immigrants.
The number of immigrants seeking Portuguese language courses in Portugal is rising, helping to facilitate their social and professional integration.
Enrolments in PLA courses—certified at the end with a diploma that serves as proof for nationality application purposes—increased from 22,014 in 2020/2021 to 56,397 in 2025 in Portugal.
Over a weekend, students swapped screens for silence. In the third edition of the Offline Weekend, all participants were foreign students. Portuguese students hesitate when it comes to signing up.
The registration deadline for the 'Friends of Brazil' competition has been extended to 8 May following requests from schools in Portugal. The initiative, promoted by the Consulate-General of Brazil in Lisbon in partnership with the Guimarães Rosa Institute and the Brazilian Embassy, is open to students from the 5th to 12th grade living in the country. The competition encourages reflection on the friendship between Brazil and Portugal, as well as themes of interculturality and integration. Groups of two to five students, including at least two different nationalities, can submit entries in categories such as handwritten essays, videos, or drawings and paintings. Prizes can reach €500 per group, and teachers from schools with high participation rates are eligible to win a trip to Brazil.
The consulate has pushed back the deadline for entries to the Amigos e Amigas do Brasil competition to 8 May.
The number of PLA courses held increased from 1,143 in 2020/2021 to 2,887 in 2025.
Rahim is an immigrant from Bangladesh who has been in Portugal since 2021; he began by learning Portuguese via the internet.
The book 'Migrations', created by students from Portalegre, expresses their vision 'on identity, diversity, and belonging' at a time when children from various countries are arriving in the region.
A national initiative by the Consulate-General of Brazil in Lisbon aims to mobilise students in Portugal to promote integration and tackle prejudice through education and interculturality.
The Miúdos da Ponte are the protagonists in the promotional campaign for 'Friends of Brazil'. The initiative is led by the Brazilian Consulate in Lisbon and aims to encourage integration in the school environment. The 'Friends of Brazil' school competition has been launched and is now open for entries.
The “Friends of Brazil” competition has been launched to reward students in Portuguese schools. Organized by the Consulate General of Brazil in Lisbon, the initiative aims to foster integration within the school environment. Groups of two to five students from across the country can participate, provided each group includes at least two different nationalities. The competition, which features cash prizes for students and trips to Brazil for teachers with the highest number of registered groups, focuses on themes of interculturality, friendship between Brazil and Portugal, and combating xenophobia. The deadline for submissions is April 30th.
The Marrazes school cluster in Leiria is gaining national recognition for its inclusive approach to multiculturalism. With 32% of its 2,500 students coming from 37 different countries, the school has developed a pedagogical 'welcome kit'—a booklet illustrated by students that helps immigrant children navigate school life and local culture. Led by social worker Patrícia Oliveira, the initiative has expanded into nine languages and is now being adopted by other schools across Portugal as a model for integration and combating xenophobia.
