Portuguese Emigration Today

Abstract

Portuguese emigration increased ever since its interruption by the 1974 revolution, especially since Portugal became a member of the then European Economic Community. This increase was underpinned by the regime of free movement of people within the European Union, which has helped transform Europe into the lead destination of Portuguese emigration. The effects of the 2008 financial crisis on this migratory dynamic have proven complex. In the first instance, the fact that this crisis was global prompted a downturn in emigration. However, in a second phase, there was new and very marked growth in the rate of Portuguese emigration coupled with changes to the hierarchy of destinations. The greatest of these alterations was the abrupt decline in the numbers departing for Spain, which was overtaken by the United Kingdom as the main destination for emigration. From a comparative perspective, the joint effects of the growth in emigration and the stagnation of immigration mean that Portugal is today among the least attractive countries in EU. As a consequence, international migratory patterns in Portugal today – as in the 1960s – are exacerbating rather than countering the population decline in the country with the lowest fertility rate in Europe.