Yes, I am biased as I'm ethnically Portuguese, travel there often enough, and love "my ancestral homeland" and already see signs of boorish US/UK expats being full-on entitled jackwagons.
Yes, I am biased as I'm ethnically Portuguese, travel there often enough, and love "my ancestral homeland" and already see signs of boorish US/UK expats being full-on entitled jackwagons.
Ah so you love the old "enjoy visiting the old country on the new country salary" bit. But what's good for you the occasional visiting ex-Portuguese may not be good for people who actually live there.
Portugal is furiously marketing itself to expats (retirees, entrepreneurs, professionals) because their government understands the demographic situation it's in. Stagnant population for ~30 years, but now the natural change is becoming so bad that without immigrants and expats, the depopulation will make any kind of economic growth impossible. A country needs a tax base, and your occasional visits won't do much for that.
No, I enjoy visiting my family and a culture I have always been attached and a part of. But thanks for the patronizing bellendry, it was expected.
I'm fine with as much immigration as .pt sees fit. I am not however, fine with what happened to southern Spain, where whole portions of coast turned into "Little Britain" including lambasting the locals for speaking their own language and preferring their own food. A local population (stagnant or otherwise) isn't there to just be a servile convenience for people just because they have means to self-exile there.
As to the rest of your moribund commentary...'porra'.
Yes, corruption is likely a cause of brain drain, I agree with you there, but I have to think that brain drain is a multifaceted issue. Some of these facets are out of the control of the locality entirely.
Some examples:
West Virginia can’t change the fact that there’s little demand for coal mining.
The Midwest can’t change the fact that the manufacturing industry spread out beyond its borders.
Vacation towns in Michigan can’t change the fact that cheap air travel now exists to take people to more desirable beach climates.
New Orleans can’t change its physical location to be less prone to flooding.
I don’t have enough familiarity with Portugal to say what’s going on, but any time I hear high taxes being blamed for widespread issues I get a faint whiff of oversimplified libertarian ideology.
Bingo
I live in the US, in the same place I was born in. But I am the son of immigrants who chose to naturalize, become "native" while not losing sight of their history. It's not difficult to do, and it's a comparative benefit (variety is the spice...)
Conversely, are you upset by immigrants in the US that don't speak English?
My expectation for those wishing to live in Portugal are analogous to how I feel about those emigrating here to the US: don't just treat your new home like a blank slate to impose your will on. It's a relationship, treat it like a balanced one.
Yes, I think language requirements matter (I hold that basic language proficiency for standard cases should require at least elementary English sufficient to participate as a citizen); I also advocate for all US citizens to be required to achieve substantive skills in a second language...note, my first language was not English, and I'm still functionally bi-lingual. The reason I don't mention this for Portugal is that they already do this, and most Portuguese born after the revolution, and certainly in urban areas, are bi-lingual or polyglot.
And yes, I think unless you are on a work visa with a set end date, you should make at least a modicum of attempt to "fit in". That doesn't mean subsuming your own historical identity, but making a functional attempt to expand it since you were inspired enough to transfer yourself to a whole other context...adapt accordingly by pulling from and contributing to.
I'm not upset by those that don't speak English in the US, but that is itself context specific. If you decide to move here at a comparatively young adult age, and do little to acclimate, then yes, I find that obnoxious. I've harangued those in the Portuguese diaspora in the US for that very same behavior; living in suburban enclaves lost in time (manay emigrated to the US during the Salazar regime).
Try again.