Currently, the scope of the duties of reception and assistance to refugees is lively debated all over Europe. Portugal has recently developed and implemented an ambitious policy of integration of third country nationals, not refraining from giving assistance and reception to refugees in the context of the European relocation initiative. The government has nevertheless expressed some clear preferences as regards the origin of newcomers and the and the kind of integration it strives for. The proposal aims to contribute to the national and European debate by means of an empirically informed analysis of normative claims. To this effect, it considers the relevant philosophical literature, the normative claims raised in the national public sphere, and carries our an assessment of the policies of assistance and integration, in the belief that a relationship exists between duties and capacities of assistance.