Migration as a tool to fight poverty

Read the article by Cátia Batista, scientific director of NOVAFRICA, published in the Brotéria magazine and now also in the NOVAFRICA blog about how migration is a tool to fight poverty in the world

PORTUGAL LACKS PEOPLE AND ECONOMIC GROWTH

There is a lack of people to work in Portugal. There is a lack of qualified people to lead projects in areas with high productivity and potential to grow at scale. People are also lacking to do less qualified jobs – such as working with elderly, in agriculture or in construction.
As depicted by the most recent 2021 census, Portuguese society is aging rapidly and the need for workers is increasing as well. Many people born in Portugal are leaving the country, and those who stay feel they have no conditions to have children – or at least as many children as they would like to.
In this context, it is difficult to understand the growing discomfort with which Portugal receives the immigrants that choose our country to live and work. During many decades (or even centuries?), Portugal was a poor and peripheral country where many emigrated and to where practically no one immigrated. The country built, in this context, a reputation to welcome foreigners, which is still a pillar of the currently prospering tourism sector.

There is a lack of people to work in Portugal. There is a lack of qualified people to lead projects in areas with high productivity and potential to grow at scale. People are also lacking to do less qualified jobs – such as working with elderly, in agriculture or in construction.

As depicted by the most recent 2021 census, Portuguese society is aging rapidly and the need for workers is increasing as well. Many people born in Portugal are leaving the country, and those who stay feel they have no conditions to have children – or at least as many children as they would like to.
In this context, it is difficult to understand the growing discomfort with which Portugal receives the immigrants that choose our country to live and work. During many decades (or even centuries?), Portugal was a poor and peripheral country where many emigrated and to where practically no one immigrated. The country built, in this context, a reputation to welcome foreigners, which is still a pillar of the currently prospering tourism sector.
Portugal is, however, becoming less and less welcoming to foreigners. The qualified immigrants, many of them European or from North America, complain about continuously hearing that they are guilty of the increase in housing prices and that they are no longer that welcome. Even worse is the hosting of less qualified immigrants, usually from poorer countries in Africa or Asia, who make huge investments to be able to work in Portugal and, in this way, help to feed and educate the family they leave behind.

Read the full article here.