Unemployment, looking for a better job, just plain broke are some of the many reasons given by Portugal’s youth for their desire to leave the country for pastures new.
A new study shows that if those wanting to leave joined those that already have left, 57% of the country’s youth will be based outside their motherland - a missing generation of potential taxpayers.
According to a new 12 country study ‘Emigration - motives and destinations’ by insurer Zurich, only the Russians show a greater willingness to emigrate than the Portuguese.
Sample were taken and responses analysed from youths in Germany, Austria, Australia, Spain, Italy, Ireland, Morocco, Mexico, the United Kingdom and Switzerland - a total of 7,700 respondents interviewed between August and September this year.
Countries with a low crime rate and with stable banking and pension systems meant Austria and Switzerland are the number one destination for 50% of those young people that said they wanted to leave Portugal. North America got only 28% of the votes and 'other Europe' 20%.
Those that wanted to stay put said that security was the main reason (18%), followed by the fact that they do not like change (15%), family obligations (9%) and reckoning they already lived in the best country in the world (6%).
The study comes just over a month after the figures were released for negative natural growth and migration, showing the Portuguese population declined again in 2012 with fewer than 90,000 births combining with 121,000 people leaving Portugal on a temporary or permanent basis.
The resident population in 2012 was 10,487,289 people (10,542,398 in 2011). Therefore 121,418 people left, whether short, medium or long term.
In fact the number of permanent emigrants was 51,958, and permanent immigrants 14,606. The massive outflow of people and the lack of attraction of Portugal for immigrants acted together.
Among 15 to 24 year olds, unemployment has risen marginally from 36.2% to 36.5% but the government still can not find over 400,000 young Portuguese who are not registered as unemployed and have not said they are leaving.
