Tag Archive for: emigration

Salaries

‘Economy should serve people, not the opposite’

According to Eurostat minimum wages in the EU member states range from 399 euros per month in Bulgaria to 2,387 euros per month in Luxembourg. As of this year, the minimum wage in Portugal is 760 euros per month. In the case of salaries, the country also remains at the tail end of average salaries in the EU, ranking 17th out of 22 member states.

Last year more than 55% of workers received wages of less than 1,000 euros per month, a percentage that rises to 65% in the case of young people under 30 years of age, according to data from the Ministry of Labour, Solidarity, and Social Security.

The INE (Instituto Nacional de Estatística) latest report from December shows that the total average monthly gross earnings per worker increased last year by 3,6% to 1,411 euros. Activities related to agriculture and fishing paid the lowest (an average of 933 euros/month), whereas jobs in electricity and gas paid substantially better (an average of 3,621 euros/month).

Although the average gross monthly salary rose, the rise hides a real drop of 4% if the effect of inflation (on average 7,6% in 2022) is taken into account, according to ECO (Economia Online). Only top managers and representatives of the legislative power had salary increases above inflation (by 9,6%). In highly qualified professions –doctors, teachers, and scientists – salaries only rose 1%.

Portuguese emigrants with higher qualifications – representing a quarter of all citizens who left the country in the last decade – are able to receive salaries three times more abroad, according to the study ‘Exodus of skills and academic mobility from Portugal to Europe’ from the Institute of Sociology of the University of Porto. ‘One of the reasons for emigrating is precisely the low salary level in our country’, points out João Teixeira Lopes, one of the authors.

This accounts not only for nurses but also for doctors. Medical specialists in Portugal are among the least paid in the EU and the country is located in the 6th lowest position, just above Greece, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia. In Germany and Belgium they would easily earn three times more and in the Netherlands and Ireland even four times more.

Property prices in Portugal are skyrocketing whereas household incomes are left behind. Nowadays a Portuguese citizen needs the equivalent of 11,4 years of salary to be able to buy a 100 square meter house.


According to the OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development), the country appears above the middle of the table, ahead of countries such as the US (4.1 years), Norway (7.8 years), and the UK (11 years) but behind Switzerland (12.6 years), Luxembourg (15.8 years) and New Zealand (18.7 years).

The CNJP ( National Committee on Justice and Peace) warns that the salary of many Portuguese workers does not allow them to overcome poverty. ’Economy, business, and work should serve people, not the opposite.


Enjoy your week          aproveite a sua semana      (pic Ptnews/Sapo)


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Migration

‘Migration is a right, not a privilege’ – António Guterres, UN Secretary-General

The socialist-led government of Antonio Costawants attracts more immigrants to compensate for a declining population due to an extremely low birth rate. It moreover stimulates highly-qualified Portuguese – who have emigrated – to return to the homeland with bonuses up to 7500 euros.

According to the latest census, Portugal had at the beginning of this year 10.3 million inhabitants. Over the last ten years, the country lost 2.1% of its population as a result of a negative balance between births and deaths.
Meanwhile the number of ex-pats –nowadays over 7% of the population – increased substantially in the last ten years. Among the foreigners residing in Portugal, 80% originate from countries outside the EU.


The INE (National Institute of Statistics) reported that a total of 27,000 Portuguese emigrants regressed to their home country last year. The highest number since 2008!
Family and climate prove to be the main reasons for emigrants in Europe to return, according to the study ‘Return expectations of Portuguese residents in the EU by the Emigration Observatory.
The most important reasons given for leaving Portugal in the past were low wages, lack of career advancement, and poor social benefits.


Portugal has the second-highest naturalization rate in the EU after Sweden.
The nationalization rate is the ratio of the number of persons who acquire citizenship of a country during a year over the number of non-national residents in that same country.
The highest rates were registered in Sweden(8.6 citizenships granted per 100 non-national residents), followed by Portugal (5.5%) and the Netherlands (4.8%).

Last year civil registry offices received almost 200,000 applications for a Portuguese passport, almost double as in previous years! According to the Immigration and Border Service (SEF), Portuguese nationality was granted in 134,000 cases, mainly to Brazilians and Sephardic Jews. The former Portuguese colonies – Cape Verde, Angola and Guinea-Bissau – completed the top 5.

The Ukrainian community is now the second largest foreign resident community in Portugal behind the Brazilian. Before the Russian invasion, official figures pointed to some 27,000 Ukrainians living in Portugal.
In the meantime, this number has doubled.

But not only has there been a substantial increase in the number of foreign residents and Portuguese returning to their patria, the number of Portuguese leaving the country also declined. 70% fewer Portuguese moved in 2020 to the UK, the country’s top spot emigration destination.
‘Never since the beginning of the century has the drop in the Portuguese emigration to the UK been that high’, says Rui Pena Pires of the Emigration Observatory. A clear effect of the Covid pandemic but also of (post)Brexit.


Enjoy the week                     Boa semana                 (pic Público/Sapo)




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Nursing

Amidst the height of the country’s fight against Covid-19, the Democratic Union of Nurses in Portugal Sindepor went on a five-day ‘wake-up call’ strike last week, during which only minimum services were provided.

Carlos Ramalho, the president of the syndicate, declared that the walkout was necessary as the nurses are exhausted and their situation in the SNS (National Health Service) deteriorating.

‘We are talking about a process of many years in which the problems have not been resolved by the Government. At this point, the work overload is such that nurses can’t take anymore’.

The union leader further stresses that Portugal is one of the OECD countries with the least number of nurses per 1,000 inhabitants. 

At the same time, the Ordem dos Enfermeiros (Order of Nurses) expressed concern about the recruitment of Portuguese nurses in Europe, revealing that hunting for nurses has intensified from countries such as Spain, the UK and the Netherlands.

These countries are offering lucrative annual contracts for hospitals and nursing homes. From Spain, there have been contracts with offers of 30,000 euros per year, almost double the salary in Portugal. The Netherlands on the other hand is providing – in addition to an ample salary – accommodation, transport and travel.

The OE recalls that ‘although the recognition of the nurses is unanimous, there is no incentive nor decent pay’. Last year more than 4,000 nurses asked the order for a declaration for emigration purposes, a record number that tripled compared to 2017 and represents an increase of 68% compared to 2018.

‘Given the severe situation we are going through – after nine months into the pandemic – it is imperative that the way nurses are hired as well as their working conditions must be improved. There are almost 20,000 nurses abroad and the Government should be concerned with creating means for them to return’, declared OE’s chairwoman Ana Rita Cavaco.

‘We just can’t afford to export more nurses’.

Keep fit                Fique saudável                                 (pic Público/Sapo)









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Diaspora

 ‘Duitse economie sterk en georganiseerd’              (Nelson Campos, 33 jaar, consulent)

‘België heeft beste sociale zekerheid ter wereld’    (Pedro Rupio, 34 jaar, bankier)
‘In Frankrijk is gezondheidszorg perfect’                (Paulo Marquez, 36 jaar, ingenieur)
‘Onderwijs in VS van wereldklasse’                          (Gabriel Marques, 35 jaar, fiscalist)
‘Braziliaanse arbeidsmarkt dynamisch‘                   ( Flávio Alves, 31 jaar, jurist)

Het merendeel van de hoogopgeleide – meest universitair geschoolde – jongeren, die de afgelopen 5 jaar geëmigreerd zijn, hebben nog geen Saudade naar hun vaderland.
Hoewel de economie lijkt aan te trekken, is er ‘onvoldoende vertrouwen, vooral omdat de jeugdwerkeloosheid(27%) erg hoog blijft’, aldus Maria Filomena Mendes, voorzitter van de Portugese Demografische Vereniging.

Emigratieland
Van de 12 miljoen Portugezen wonen ruim 2 miljoen in het buitenland. Er is geen land in Europa – op ministaatje Malta na – met zoveel emigranten! ‘Emigratie zit de Portugezen in het bloed. Dat is al zo sinds de ontdekkingsreizen in de 15e eeuw’, zegt historicus Magelhães Godinho.

Emigratie in de jaren 60
De emigrant van vandaag is niet meer de laagopgeleide werknemer uit de jaren 60 van de vorige eeuw, die destijds – toen Portugal een dictatuur was en dure koloniale oorlogen uitvocht in Afrika – massaal het land ontvluchtte. Driekwart van de emigranten verliet het land indertijd illegaal, vooral naar Frankrijk.

Braindrain
Door de wereldwijde crisis en de forse bezuinigingen zijn sinds 2011 – toen de economische crisis op z’n hoogtepunt was – ieder jaar meer dan 100.000Portugezen naar het buitenland vertrokken. In tegenstelling tot de jaren 60 zijn het nu vooral jonge en gekwalificeerde mensen die emigreren en is met name Engeland zeer gewild bij artsen en verpleegkundigen.
Als gevolg van deze braindrain verliest het land niet alleen haar dure investeringen in het hoger onderwijs, maar tevens een belangrijk deel van de economisch actieve bevolking. Daartegenover staat dat het bedrag dat emigranten elk jaar naar hun vaderland terugsturen nog nooit zo hoog is geweest. In 2016 bijna 3 miljard euro. En dat is natuurlijk weer goed voor de lokale economie.

Brexit
Angst voor de Brexit weerhoudt veel verpleegkundigen er toenemend van om naar Engeland te emigreren. Het afgelopen jaar zijn het aantal verzoeken – om het diploma in het Verenigd Koninkrijk erkend te krijgen – dan ook gehalveerd.

Bevolking verschrompelt
Volgens Rui Pena Pires, onderzoeker bij het Emigratie Observatorium, is een bijkomend probleem ‘dat de immigratie maar niet op gang wil komen en er veel te weinig arbeidsplaatsen voor nieuwe immigranten worden gecreëerd’. 
Omdat veel jonge Portugezen blijven emigreren, krimpt de bevolking niet alleen maar vergrijst ook nog eens.

Geniet van het weekend             Tenha um excelente fim de semana

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