Sociologist Rui Pena Pires believes that low wages and the housing crisis are increasingly excuses for the Portuguese to emigrate, especially young and qualified, although a third will eventually return.
In an interview with Lusa, the scientific director of the emigration Observatory and one of the authors of the Atlas of Portuguese Emigration, said that “the difference in wages and the professional perspective” are the main driver for Portuguese emigration, especially of the youngest.
“We pay very low wages compared to the most developed countries in the European Union. It would be perfectly abnormal if, with freedom of movement and this wage differential, there was no emigration,” he said.
And he added:”We should ask why so many people still stay here and the answer is because, even so, it is difficult to emigrate, to go to a place that I do not know, where I do not have family, friends, and where I do not know very well if I am going to get by with the habits of day-to-day and work; and this insecurity is what stops emigration, otherwise much more would emigrate”.
To this wage issue is added the housing crisis in Portugal, namely high house prices and rents.
“If there was any deterrent to emigration, it was the fact that it is much cheaper to get a house in Lisbon than in Amsterdam and ,today, it is almost the same,” he noted. The housing crisis is not only Portuguese, it is general, but, despite the prices practiced are more or less the same in Lisbon and Amsterdam, disposable income is much lower in Portugal, he explained.
Emigration is the option of about 60 thousand to 65 thousand Portuguese who cross borders every year.
“Portugal is a country of emigration and, since 1974, a country of immigration”, being a country much more of exits than entries, the country with the most Accumulated emigration in the European Union and with the least immigration.
In relation to Portuguese emigration in the 60s of the twentieth century, when many left illegally, today emigration takes place in the European area and is more qualified, which results from the qualification of the Portuguese population.
Rui Pena Pires clarifies that in the 60s there was also qualified Portuguese emigration, in a percentage of graduates not much lower than today, but to countries such as Angola or Mozambique, former Portuguese colonies.
Even today, most of the emigrants who leave do not have a degree, namely to countries with traditional destinations for Portuguese emigration, such as France, where there are more Portuguese emigrants. On the contrary, for Northern European countries, such as the United Kingdom (before Brexit), the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, more than half of emigrants have a bachelor’s degree.
Where emigration is having increasingly high numbers is in the Netherlands which, in some way, “may be replacing the United Kingdom as a destination for skilled emigration”. The number of Portuguese who emigrated to the Netherlands rose from 1000 in 2000 to more than 3000 in 2021. Currently, about 20 thousand Portuguese live in that country.
“The Netherlands has one of the highest percentages of multinationals in the whole of Europe and needs skilled professionals in all areas and, for this reason, they are also looking for emigrants in all areas, namely from the European Union,” he said, highlighting the advantage of the English language being used by all.
According to the Atlas of emigration, about 30% of Portuguese, between the ages of 15 and 39, are emigrated, which “is no surprise”, since there are about 2,3 million citizens born in Portugal who reside outside the country. This means that between 22 and 23% of the population born in Portugal is emigrated.
On the consequences of these departures, the sociologist says that it puts pressure on the Portuguese demography: “one does not emigrate from Bengal, but especially at a young age, under 40 years old”.
Most of the women who emigrate at that time are of childbearing age and are having their children abroad. In 2022, about 80 thousand children were born in Portugal, of these only a part are daughters of Portuguese mothers and about 11 thousand to 12 thousand Portuguese were born children of Portuguese mothers outside, only in the six countries for which we have data, because if it were for everyone we would easily reach 20 thousand.
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