A study conducted into Portugal’s ‘brain drain’ of young, educated workers to northern European countries reveals that about half will not be coming back.
The search for employment and better rates of pay was given as the reason by 80.7% of respondents.
Of the respondents, 52% consider it 'highly unlikely or definite' that they would not return home to Portugal.
The long-term study was started in 2013 by Rui Machado Gomes, a professor at the University of Coimbra whose report, "Brain Drain and Academic Mobility from Portugal to Europe" involved researcher teams from the Universities of Coimbra, Oporto and Lisbon using interviews and online questionnaires and a sample of 1,011 Portuguese emigrants.
All respondents had higher education qualifications and had left to live in another European country.
Professor Gomes said that "definitive emigration has a cost," not only in the loss of investment in training people who then emigrate, but also emigration affects the innovation and development within Portuguese companies and hastens Portugal’s rise to the top of the ‘old man of Europe’ league where in a generation's time an elderly population cannot expect state support above a bare minimum as there will be a insufficient number of taxpayers left to support them.
Migration has led to greater work stability, with 48.9% of those questioned having full time employment contracts (as opposed to 20.7% in Portugal), as well as greater net monthly income, with 62% earning between €1,000 and €3,000, while in Portugal many had no income (30%) or earned below €1,000 (42.5%).
The search for employment, better pay, the need for achievement and a career were the reasons most frequently mentioned by respondents as to why they had left.
According to Professor Gomes, the brain drain phenomenon "deepens the asymmetries between Europe’s south and north and will be the death the European project."
