If you really wanted immigrants to leave Portugal, then you should grandfather existing resident permit holders and applicants. Once they get their citizenship based on the extremely high emigration rate in Portugal, a lot of them are likely to just leave for another EU country. Yes it’s unfortunate that immigrants come to Portugal just to get citizenship and then move to another EU country, but now you will have all the immigrants locked into the country, with limited mobility to leave and difficulty in maintaining and working due to residence permit issues. You’ve basically trapped a huge swath of people in the country for another decade or more because let’s be honest, AIMA is never getting fixed.
Every prospective high-paid, well-educated immigrant in tech, entrepreneurship or another career/domain that can bring a lot of value to a country, will now just go somewhere else. Everybody with those credentials has other options, plenty of other places they can go to and none of them are going to be willing to pay taxes for more than a decade to receive dysfunctional services, a cyclic period every 2 years where they can’t leave the country and return easily for 1 year while AIMA renews their permit, and the general ire of the public and the state who have demonized these people and used them as a scapegoat. No more of these people will choose Portugal, why would anyone do a PHD in a Portuguese university now, contribute to research and development when they have the state actively fighting to kick them out and make their life as difficult as possible?
Now that all those high-paid and qualified individuals who could have potentially brought a lot of value to the country are going to leave, you are stuck with low-paid, unqualified migrant labor and less educated immigrants, essentially people who don’t have a choice. People who have no other options because no other country is likely to accept them, people who would happily wait 10-15 years because the situation in an EU country is miles better than the situation for them back in their own countries.
A country lives by its reputation. It’s one thing to change citizenship laws without grandfathering existing residents, it’s another thing to make people wait 5 years for a residence permit, then purposefully change the law protecting immigrants from the dysfunctional AIMA wait times while simultaneously changing the citizenship laws. For someone who has been in the country for years paying taxes and contributing, it’s just insulting. The government has every right to change the citizenship laws, no immigrant is entitled to citizenship in 5 years if the public and government wants to change it, but to not implement grandfathering and then specifically cut the section of the law that protects people from AIMA is a pretty shocking move. Not only is it shocking, but its dehumanizing. No immigrant should feel entitled to citizenship, but every immigrant who pays taxes, and in some cases have donated 1,000,000 euros to a cultural institution in order to receive a residence permit, should feel entitled to due process, a functioning court system, a functioning timeline, and a functioning mechanism to preserve what little dignity is left. Instead, four years after donating 1,000,000 euros, the immigrant is told that rich people have been left for last in the same way a student who forgot to do their homework makes up a shitty last minute excuse for their teacher. But after years of seeing how things work, that seems to just be how things are done, do a crappy job, and then pretend that was the plan all along.
This was well stated and your points about young Portuguese leaving struck home.
I watched an interesting and well produced documentary produced by Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos after seeing one of their series on a TAP flight.
It offers some insights into the brain drain PT has with its own young folks. The government is struggling on many fronts and, as you noted, this is just the piece of the elephant we happen to touch (to co-opt an old parable).
From the summary: Thousands of young Portuguese graduates emigrate every year. Faced with salaries below the European average and limited opportunities for career progression and professional recognition, many travel abroad in search of what they feel they cannot find at home.
It is no longer only about income but about quality of life. Portugal is producing its most highly qualified generation ever. It must value them so that their qualifications do not become mere passports, and the country can reap the benefits of their expertise.
Drawing on statistical data, expert interviews and the testimony of young emigrants and returnees, this documentary – co-produced with RTP and narrated by journalist Carlos Daniel – offers a comprehensive view of one of the country’s great structural challenges: how to prepare Portugal to compete for talent in a borderless world.
There is a lot on their website looking at poverty, homes, tourism, etc.
You are right, but sometimes it is worth to stand up for a principle. Every legal case generates negative publicity, and with sufficient number of them, the government might start to take notice. It might be worth a couple of grand to at least try make our voices heard.
If PT handed out passports to worker bees they too would leave. This way they have to serve another 5 years at low wages.
Portugal is structurally a low value ecocomy so their grads will leave until the structure of the economy changes. Till then bottle washers are needed.
Personally, I’ve spent enough. Bought an overpriced property 4 years ago that is just getting completed. Taking a bath on the sale of the property (lucky to have even find a buyer) and I’ve never been able to even use the place. I don’t need to prove to PT Government and lawyers that I am the walking wallet they think I am. I’m honestly glad they put GV applicants at the back of the line or I’d be out the yearly fees.
I have no interest in paying anyone in PT any more money for what has been a complete fail and scam. Lawyers are happy to take your money for a lawsuit that will either be tied up in bureaucracy for another 10 years and likely fail. It’s a fools errand.
You’re right, everyone is treated as a ‘walking wallet’. PT government doesn’t treat foreigners ‘as human beings’ at all - they say one thing and do another.
That sounds about right. Im a Brit, lived all over the world (oil business) and last 2 years lived in Portugal. D7 passive income visa. I woudnt waste any energy even considering the legal or ethical position. Just look at the political forces driving whats happening. It is what it is. Citizenship by investment is increasingly viewed as dodgy, especially in the holier-than-the-Pope EU. As someone observed earlier, nobody apart from Portugal offers this (with dual citizenship allowed). Thats a consequence, not a choice. Its a closing door and, what a surprise, its closing! This is a great place to live, as long as your business /income is from a more reliable place. People are relaxed (in both the good and bad sense - relaxed about their responsibilities toward you too), weather is perfect, food is great, that relaxed atmosphere is very attractive in everyday life once you learn not to fight it. Yes any young person with any drive is leaving. The physical characteristics of Portugal, and the political reality in the EU today, dictate that this is a great place to actually live as a passive earner or remote worker. As soon as you want to to work / build a business / invest locally, you are going against the grain and can expect to suffer. This ‘goodness’ extends to many informal mechanisms whereby the rich subsidise the poor. And why not? I dont dislike it too much, it sort-of works. Yes I have spent a lot of time and money being given the run-around by AIMA. But just to put their sins in context - my wife (Russian passport) and I lived happily in Blighty for 6 years, then suddenly the Home Office didnt renew her residence permit. Didnt say no. But didnt say yes. We are in limbo. I have a UK passport (only). We were married in UK. Our daughter is a UK citizen. They wont even talk to me about it. I have never felt so betrayed and insulted. So here we are in Portugal. Yes AIMA have caused me some grief. But compared to the UK Home Office they play fair.
The UK is honestly a shit bucket if a country when it comes to its own citizens - no poor people can bring in a spouse, many UK citizens cannot pass on citizenship to kuds etc. Cough up 3MM GBP and in the past all was fine. Another 500K to a prty could get you a peerage!
Yes ILR but on 10 year route to Settlement rather than 5 because they 'didnt recognise ’ our marriage (Dorchester Register Office; our 22 year old daughter a UK citizen). She held a BRP for 2 x 2 1/2 years then after next biometrics meeting to extend another 2/12 years, silence.
And, worse, thats just the official position. When you’re on the receiving end of these policies (which very few UK citizens are) you find that even when you’ve jumped through all the hoops and ticked all the boxes, in practice the system still has instructions to thwart you. My wife is often detained at immigration, despite having all documents and a perfect compliance record. There is a racist, xenophobic culture that allows politicians, and the officials they empower, to act outside the law.
