Live data from Hacker News

Expats are moving to Portugal

latimes.com

11–20 of 165 posts

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#11
post #9

California has 40 million people Any place where just a tiny fraction, less than 1%, want to check out will get a wild market distortion. Whether it was all those small and medium sized towns getting remote workers during the Alpha and hardcore Delta days Or places in Portugal The story will be the same

> Any place where just a tiny fraction, less than 1%, want to check out will get a wild market distortion. Completely & totally ignores the scale of market impact an expat/wealthy-immigrant people have. There's plenty of people who would rather live somewhere else. Most have limited ability to move somewhere & make an impact. This story is about as opposite as that as can be told: the worlds 0.03% want cheaper places…

So, which part of what you wrote was the opposite of what I wrote?

California has a lot of people that fit the bill that you just described. This is an LATimes article about Californians in Portugal.

Everywhere I went over the last 2 years had California remote workers doing the same thing in that location. California has a lot of decently capitalized remote workers who dont require to be subjects of California’s or America’s problems.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#12
post #10
post #6

Portugal has been extremely popular with the nomad community too. A good dozen of friends of mine have already moved there through NHR and lots more are in the works. There are also projects like rebase.co, which make things super easy to set up base in the country. It seems like it's getting to a point where Portugal so popular, it might steer people away from itself instead.

It's amazing that people within the country (I live in Portugal and am portuguese) mostly want to get out, and so many people seem to want to get in (to work outside). I genuinely don't 100% get it.

I think the reason is that the majority of people moving in to Portugal are nomads who already have high salaries, and the Portuguese trying to get out either have low salaries or are unemployed.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#14
For those intrigued, Greece has a "Golden Visa" program with a mere €250,000 buy-in. Spain has one at €500,000, same as Portugal. I would think Spain, with its larger cities and a language that is more familiar to most Californians than Portuguese, would have greater appeal.

Ireland offers an "investor" residency program with a €1M buy-in. Just as charming and scenic, although worse weather, plus they speak something very like English .

All of these countries, as well as New Zealand and Australia, offer residency to people of working age with professional qualifications in any of a long list of skills.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#15
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Any place where just a tiny fraction, less than 1%, want to check out will get a wild market distortion. Completely & totally ignores the scale of market impact an expat/wealthy-immigrant people have. There's plenty of people who would rather live somewhere else. Most have limited ability to move somewhere & make an impact. This story is about as opposite as that as can be told: the worlds 0.03% want cheaper places…

So, which part of what you wrote was the opposite of what I wrote? California has a lot of people that fit the bill that you just described. This is an LATimes article about Californians in Portugal. Everywhere I went over the last 2 years had California remote workers doing the same thing in that location. California has a lot of decently capitalized remote workers who dont require to be subjects of California’s or…

> So, which part of what you wrote was the opposite of what I wrote?

The part where you said any group of people, and I said a very wealthy group of people.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#16
post #12
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's amazing that people within the country (I live in Portugal and am portuguese) mostly want to get out, and so many people seem to want to get in (to work outside). I genuinely don't 100% get it.

I think the reason is that the majority of people moving in to Portugal are nomads who already have high salaries, and the Portuguese trying to get out either have low salaries or are unemployed.

Most of my friends are very much employed, pretty smart (they'd get a job pretty much anywhere, probably FAANG, too) and they are either out of the country or want to get out.

In general, they want higher salaries (like you mentioned), but there also seems to be a clear disdain for most of the portuguese cultural heritage, to be honest. This might be an ecochamber (I'd put money on it being the case) but most people "around me" who are in "the tech world" are pretty much diametrically opposed to most portuguese customs and culture. They don't really identify with the country, the history, the religion, the folklore, the politics, the sports...and if you add the income disparity to it, it makes sense that they want to leave.

If not for the will of my Significant Others throughout the years, I would have definitely left a looooong time ago.

(Man, I find it somewhat atrocious how much we like to tell the great stories of how we went and stole, raped, killed and enslaved during the time of the discoveries, all for our own pleasure (and that of our religion). I guess I can somewhat frame it in its time, but you will never hear me talk about our "great accomplishments" in that regard. I'm deeply ashamed of them, not proud.)

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#17
post #10
post #6

Portugal has been extremely popular with the nomad community too. A good dozen of friends of mine have already moved there through NHR and lots more are in the works. There are also projects like rebase.co, which make things super easy to set up base in the country. It seems like it's getting to a point where Portugal so popular, it might steer people away from itself instead.

It's amazing that people within the country (I live in Portugal and am portuguese) mostly want to get out, and so many people seem to want to get in (to work outside). I genuinely don't 100% get it.

I do. If you got a remote gig, you can have a high salary (>100k€). Whereas if you just graduated from a Portugese university and a starting salary could be around 20k€. If you move within EU, you could boost your salary to 50k€.

Portugal is an amazing country with great food, people, and weather.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#18
post #10
post #6

Portugal has been extremely popular with the nomad community too. A good dozen of friends of mine have already moved there through NHR and lots more are in the works. There are also projects like rebase.co, which make things super easy to set up base in the country. It seems like it's getting to a point where Portugal so popular, it might steer people away from itself instead.

It's amazing that people within the country (I live in Portugal and am portuguese) mostly want to get out, and so many people seem to want to get in (to work outside). I genuinely don't 100% get it.

The people coming in are fleeing the messes they made at home. You probably should get out, before they make the same messes there.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#20
One thing to keep in mind is that Portugal allows dual citizenship while Spain does not. Greek is much harder to learn than Portuguese. Many folks would spend 5 years, get the EU passport, and then have the option to move in the EU.
Post reply on HN