Since the independence of the former African colonies, Portugal saw a steady immigration from Africa, most notably Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau, but also São Tomé and Príncipe, Mozambique and former Portuguese India in Asia.
Portugal saw migration waves due to labor shortages since 1999, first from Eastern Europe (1999-2002), in two distinctive groups, a Slav (Ukraine, Russia and Bulgaria) and an East Latin (Romania and Moldavia), that stopped and started declining as the labour market became saturated.