New Wave of Brazilian Immigrants to Portugal is Underway
By Richard Mann, Contributing Reporter
RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – According to Cíntia de Paulo, of Casa do Brasil, a non-profit association in Lisbon, a new wave of immigrants to Portugal is underway, and gaining in momentum. Her organisation works to help Brazilians living in Portugal, and so comes into contact with many.
Many of these newcomers are “well informed and having planned their immigration,” while others were attracted by stories on social media of an “El Dorado” that does not in fact exist, said de Paulo in an interview with Lusa News Agency in which she cited the latest figures from the International Organization for Migration (IOM) confirming the trend.
“I venture to say that in the last year – especially towards the the end – and early this year, the number of arrivals of Brazilians in Portugal was very significant.”
According to de Paulo, this new wave of immigration is different from the others, with the people coming to stay having more diverse profiles.
Lusa sought fresh data on the subject from Portugal’s Foreigners and Borders Service (SEF), but a source said that figures for 2018 are not yet available.
The last big waves of Brazilian immigration to Portugal took place in the late 1990s and early 2000s, she recalled, adding that the current one is very large.
Immigrants are diverse and include both less qualified people and individuals with higher qualifications, including university students whose number has been increasingly steadily since 2009.
A new community of retired individuals with stable incomes in Brazil is also beginning to form, since Portugal issues residency permits specifically for them.
According to de Paulo, there is still another smaller group made up of a high-earning Brazilian elite.
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