Sociologist Rui Pena Pires believes that low wages and the housing crisis are becoming more and more pretexts for Portuguese people to emigrate, especially young and qualified people, although a third of them end up returning.
In an interview with the Lusa news agency, the scientific director of the Emigration Observatory and one of the authors of the Atlas of Portuguese Emigration, which will be presented next Tuesday in Lisbon, said that “the difference in salaries and professional prospects” are the main driving force behind Portuguese emigration, especially among younger people.
“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.
He added: “We should be asking why so many people are still here and the answer is because it’s still difficult to emigrate, to go to a place I don’t know, where I don’t have family or friends, and where I don’t know very well if I’m going to manage with my day-to-day habits and work; and this insecurity is what is holding back emigration, otherwise many more would emigrate.”
Added to this wage issue is Portugal’s housing crisis, namely high house prices and rents.
“If there was any deterrent to emigration, it was the fact that it was much cheaper to get a house in Lisbon than in Amsterdam, and today it’s almost the same,” he said.
The housing crisis isn’t just Portuguese, it’s general, but although prices are more or less the same in Lisbon and Amsterdam, disposable income is much lower in Portugal, he explained.
Emigration is the choice of around 60,000 to 65,000 Portuguese who cross borders every year.
“Portugal is a country of emigration and, since 1974, a country of immigration”, being a country of many more outflows than inflows, the country with the most accumulated emigration in the European Union and the least immigration.
In relation to Portuguese emigration in the 1960s, when many left illegally, today emigration is taking place within Europe and is more qualified, which is the result of the qualifications of the Portuguese population.
Rui Pena Pires explains that in the 1960s there was also qualified Portuguese emigration, with a percentage of graduates not much lower than today, but to countries like Angola or Mozambique, former Portuguese colonies.
Even today, the majority of emigrants who leave don’t have a degree, particularly in the countries where Portuguese emigration traditionally goes, such as France, where there are more Portuguese emigrants.
On the other hand, for northern European countries such as the United Kingdom (before Brexit), the Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden and Norway, more than half of emigrants have a degree.
Where emigration is increasingly high is in the Netherlands, which in some ways “may be replacing the UK as a destination for skilled emigration”.
The number of Portuguese emigrating to the Netherlands has risen from 1,000 in 2000 to over 3,000 in 2021. There are currently around 20,000 Portuguese living in the Netherlands.
“The Netherlands has one of the highest percentages of multinationals in the whole of Europe and needs qualified professionals in all areas, which is why they are also looking for emigrants in all areas, particularly from the European Union,” he said, highlighting the advantage of the English language being used by everyone.
According to the Atlas of Emigration, around 30% of Portuguese people between the ages of 15 and 39 are emigrating, which is “no surprise” given that there are around 2.3 million citizens born in Portugal who live outside the country. This means that between 22 and 23% of the population born in Portugal is emigrated.
Regarding the consequences of these departures, the sociologist says that it puts pressure on Portuguese demographics: “People don’t emigrate with a walking stick, but especially at a young age, under 40.”
Most of the women who emigrate at that time are of childbearing age and are having their children abroad. In 2022, around 80,000 children were born in Portugal, only a portion of whom were born to Portuguese mothers, and around 11,000 to 12,000 Portuguese children were born to Portuguese mothers abroad, only in the six countries for which we have data, because if it were for all of them we would easily reach 20,000.
