The same thing is happening all over Western Europe too. There are increasingly fewer young people and a lot of them are first or second generation immigrants, that are lacking the needed skills/knowledge to run a business.
> But their own children have now mostly moved to cities in search of higher-paying, less onerous work.
Perhaps they have plenty of skills, look at the rewards, and "Nope" right out.
Running a small business is ferociously hard, and you are almost always better off taking a nice, cushy, well-paying salary somewhere if you have the option--in spite of the general HN zeitgeist, advice, and bias towards startups.
They're not going to make it illegal to build housing in places where people want to live; that would require a huge change to the national zoning law, which would never happen. The current law works extremely well. Other countries really should learn from Japan's example, as urban planning here is fantastic compared to anyplace else I've been.
It's hard work ending up in Europe. You have to be driven, one way or another, to endure that journey.
Refugees are at a disadvantage in terms of employability, capital, and in academic capital, while the European labor market has high unemployment, few low-skilled jobs, and high educational demands on most jobs.
They may be driven, but the deck is stacked against them, which is why we aren't seeing more impressive outcomes for these groups.
By education I don't even mean they're undereducated - for example over 40% of Syrian refugees here in Ireland are college educated, comparable to the overall level nationally. But their educational institutions are unknown here, and not necessarily trusted - and a limited grasp of the language is always going to hold you back. We have a significant shortage of medical staff here but Ukrainian doctors have so far been unable to enter the workforce because it takes about a year to go through exams to verify their qualifications.
Plus asylum seekers in many countries are banned from working at all - hard to have a good economic outcome when you're not allowed to earn an income, sometimes for years.
> There are increasingly fewer young people and a lot of them are first or second generation immigrants, that are lacking the needed skills/knowledge to run a business.
That reads to me that immigrants are less likely and don't have the skills to be entrepreneurs.
On top of self-selection, they are also selected by the immigration system, which is... not a neutral force.
No, they're not. Immigration laws were reformed completely in the last decade, and it's extremely easy to immigrate here if you have valuable skills. Lots of service jobs are also being filled by immigrants from SE Asia now.
I know very few successful businesses here. Believe you me, those are not lacking suitors, inheritors, successors or what have you in Portugal. There's a sad story of economic opportunity between the lines.