Latest news and stories about brain drain in Portugal for expats and residents.
Despite an increase in births in 2025, the need to stop young people leaving the country remains an urgent issue, only eased by the labour of immigrants. Opinion by Amanda Rattes
In 2012, while Portugal took to the streets against austerity measures, many young people were already planning to leave. Berlin was and continues to be a destination for qualified Portuguese under 35. The TVI/CNN Portugal report, produced with support from the Portugal–Germany Journalism Scholarship, follows five stories of Portuguese people who arrived in the German capital at different times. Portugal pushed them in different directions to reinvent themselves, and they discovered a new concept of “home”.
In this column, I aim to dismantle a recent narrative — now conveniently revived — that portrays the Portuguese economy as being on an exceptionally favourable trajectory. This is a deeply misguided and biased reading of reality, based on incomplete data and hasty interpretations. Among its most repeated arguments is the idea that Portugal would finally ...
