Expats? You mean immigrants?
Expats usually refer to skilled or wealthy immigrants. It's a subclass.
Most skilled immigrants are still immigrants, unless we start calling h1bs expats
Expats are moving to Portugal
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Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#72Earlier quoted context omitted.
> The food is bad Dear, your credibility: Goodbye.
Never been, but after visiting Spain last year, I struggle to believe Portugal has bad food.
And I'm here to say that it's not (and I've eaten all over the world). Portuguese food is excellent.
Obviously it depends what you like, but the seafood and rice dishes were excellent. And there's also Mozambican food with spicy piri-piri sauce... can't get enough of that.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#73Expats? You mean immigrants?
Expats = moving there temporarily, either on assignment or retirement.
Immigrants = moving there to settle down permanently, eventually naturalizing.
You can start off being an expat and turn into an immigrant.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#74I've always loved how migrants become expats when they're white. I had thought it was exclusively a preserve of the British in anywhere in Europe that's sunny, and people who moved to Singapore or Dubai for the money, but hey, welcome to the club, Californians into yoga!
I think expatriate actually has a different shade of meaning from migrant. Expats are typically people living outside their country on a non-permanent basis (on assignment or some temporary basis), with no intention to permanent emigrate to the country. Immigrants however are people who move to a country with the intention of settling there permanently. From the article's description, it sounds like these folks are e…
I've always thought that the key difference is attitude to the host country. Expatriates don't want to (or don't think they need to) attempt to integrate, migrants do.
I've met British people who've been in NZ since the 1980s who still consider themselves ex-pats - and can still complain about how our Weetbix is nothing like good ol Weetabix.
But then I've met people from Britain who've been here for 10 years, and considered themselves a Kiwi for 10 years too.
I guess it comes down to their mindset.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#75For 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…
Do you have to pay 250,000 for the Visa? Or just have that much in your bank account?
In Portugal it has to be an investment (350K+ depending on where) which ideally is a house. Purchased with the visa in mind, has to be mentioned in the contract. You should involve a lawyer for that. The house (or apartment) can have a mortgage and be rented out. I learned this from selling a house in Cascais to a Taiwanees woman.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#76Earlier quoted context omitted.
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…
The .com crash made me leave, it was almost impossible to stay employed afterwards, unless one would like to be jumping jobs every couple of months (many of my friends went through this, others created their own companies).
I left, now it is really hard to come back before retirement, due to the ways life drives us around.
It really feels like an ecochamber, or a generation thing maybe, because even with my regular visits I seldom meet people that think that way.
What I do meet, is the difference of working in Portugal, and how things work in central/nothern Europe.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#77I think people from coastal California, such as the couple featured in the article, take for granted the spontaneous joy when random friends and family pop into the city, because of a work trip for example, and try to meet up. And then proceed to have a deep meaningful conversation in your native language where you get each other's references, figures of speech, jokes, and are generally on the same wavelength. It see…
Portugal seriously sucks. The food is bad, and yeah you can see about all there is to see in both Lisboa and Porto in under a week. I was really turned off when I went there in November. I think it's a magnet for this stuff because it's cheaper than the rest of Europe and the government has openly marketed itself to this kind of thing (to the detriment of the citizens, who are being priced out of housing and a lot of…
Out of curiosity, what is good food ?
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#78I've always loved how migrants become expats when they're white. I had thought it was exclusively a preserve of the British in anywhere in Europe that's sunny, and people who moved to Singapore or Dubai for the money, but hey, welcome to the club, Californians into yoga!
I think expatriate actually has a different shade of meaning from migrant. Expats are typically people living outside their country on a non-permanent basis (on assignment or some temporary basis), with no intention to permanent emigrate to the country. Immigrants however are people who move to a country with the intention of settling there permanently. From the article's description, it sounds like these folks are e…
It's fair to assume that British pensioners that move to Spain are not doing it on a temporary basis, however they are still called expats. This kind of language is usually an indication of exceptionalism.
Another example is British newspapers which use "corruption" when writing about alleged corruption in African countries, but use "sleaze" or "controversies" when writing about alleged corruption in the UK.
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#79Earlier quoted context omitted.
You know, as a (former) native Californian, if I were to use that argument against the people who migrated to California I’d probably be skewed alive.
Are you honestly comparing rich, possibly bored, coastal Californians looking for that new remote beach city to gentrify to ambitious/poor LATAM immigrants seeking a better way of life and employment in coastal California ? Those are very different stories.
No, the parent comment is probably referring to obnoxious people with MBAs from Minnesota or wherever who move to LA or SF and complain on the internet about how it’s “like living in a third world country” after 6 months
Re: Expats are moving to Portugal
#80Earlier quoted context omitted.
I think expatriate actually has a different shade of meaning from migrant. Expats are typically people living outside their country on a non-permanent basis (on assignment or some temporary basis), with no intention to permanent emigrate to the country. Immigrants however are people who move to a country with the intention of settling there permanently. From the article's description, it sounds like these folks are e…
I've always thought that the key difference is attitude to the host country. Expatriates don't want to (or don't think they need to) attempt to integrate, migrants do. I've met British people who've been in NZ since the 1980s who still consider themselves ex-pats - and can still complain about how our Weetbix is nothing like good ol Weetabix. But then I've met people from Britain who've been here for 10 years, and co…
That can’t be the key difference lest you consider gettoed immigrants with no expectation of integration as expats, which is not the typical usage.