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Expats are moving to Portugal

latimes.com

101–110 of 165 posts

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#101

>Within the mix of retirees, digital nomads and young families fed up with issues including the costs of housing and healthcare, Trumpian politics and pandemic policies, Given that Trump is not the president since a long time and California is the most progressive US state, I'd think that Californians are fleeing progressive politics, not Trumpian politics.

Californians are fleeing high prices, not progressive politics. The progressive politics there have attracted people for decades, so much so that it’s become unaffordable.

Yeah, no.

Paying $3M for a house in SF but public schools aren’t an option because “math is racist” is fleeing progressive politics.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#102
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The food is bad Dear, your credibility: Goodbye.

The national dish of Portugal is salted codfish with cabbage. Fucking gross. I will die on this hill I don't care how many downvotes it gets me. You can find Italian restaurants all over the world. Where are all the Portugese restaurants if this cuisine is so brilliant?

Indeed the national dish is not to my taste, I'm not even sure what the USA national dish is, however I suspect it probably isn't the best, despite there being very good food available there.

It can be hard to know what to eat and often more importantly where to eat as a tourist, and in Portugal its often (in my experience) the last obvious establishments that are the best (often places you don't even think sell food).

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#103
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.

(Comparatively) Rich people unaffected by a country's local social and economic woes want to live there because it's cheap and they can live like kings. Locals want to get out because costs are rising and they're used like slaves. You'll find similar problems in SE Asian countries. People want to escape their oppressive governments and lift their family out of crushing poverty and unaffordable living. People from Nor…

I noticed this too. Some foreigners will rave about how much more sane the politics is than the US (or wherever home is) and don’t seem to realize: 1) they are out of the loop of local politics, 2) the media is tightly controlled and 3) certain things can’t be said without a visit by the police.

They are so insulated from reality in their expat bubble that all the negatives locals see are actually positives to them.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#104

I'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!

White probably is a factor, but I think its more they are self sufficient, i.e. they either don't need to work or have been drafted in temporarily to fill a skills gap at the behest of a corporation.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#105
post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Californians are fleeing high prices, not progressive politics. The progressive politics there have attracted people for decades, so much so that it’s become unaffordable.

Yeah, no. Paying $3M for a house in SF but public schools aren’t an option because “math is racist” is fleeing progressive politics.

Show me your data, and I’ll validate your claim.

The great weight of stories published on this question indicates that people are vacating to live less expensively/more lavishly, not to be with people less politically progressive. Are there a few such people? Sure. But they’re hardly the majority.

There are a lot of reasons why people choose not to send their kids to public school. Sometimes it’s because they perceive the public school as unsafe. The primary reason isn’t because parents disagree with the math curriculum, but because they want to give their kids a leg up in the fiercely competitive race to get into a top university. When everyone around you is wealthy and smart, parents try to find whatever advantage they can.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#106
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The national dish of Portugal is salted codfish with cabbage. Fucking gross. I will die on this hill I don't care how many downvotes it gets me. You can find Italian restaurants all over the world. Where are all the Portugese restaurants if this cuisine is so brilliant?

Indeed the national dish is not to my taste, I'm not even sure what the USA national dish is, however I suspect it probably isn't the best, despite there being very good food available there. It can be hard to know what to eat and often more importantly where to eat as a tourist, and in Portugal its often (in my experience) the last obvious establishments that are the best (often places you don't even think sell food…

> I'm not even sure what the USA national dish

Doubt there is one (some might say apple pie) and the only thing I can think of that unites all the different American cuisines and regional variations is the sandwich.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2015/04/14/dining/field-...

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#107
post #69

I'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…

> 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.

I think those are the textbook definitions, but in reality expat is usually applied to those from higher income countries only.

Do this quick experiment, do an image search "expats in " vs "migrants in " and compare the pictures:

See what their income appears to be, clothing, skin color and circumstances.

Dubai:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=expats+in+dubai&t=h_&iax=images&ia...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=migrants+in+dubai&t=h_&iar=images&...

Costa Rica:

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=migrants+in+costa+rica&t=h_&iar=im...

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=expats+in+costa+rica&t=h_&iar=imag...

For example, for 'expats in Costa Rica' I got shown a couple in an outdoor hotel, and for 'migrants in Costa Rica' I got shown the Immigration Police detaining a group from Africa and a dozen people sharing a bed.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Out of curiosity, what is good food ?

big mac

> big mac

Here it is ladies and gentleman. Portuguese people love bashing Americans. They have a really narrow minded idea of what an American is, and that's that ("Americans are fat", "Americans are stupid").

Portuguese people consider themselves worldly and educated, which is ironic because for the most part they tend to be extremely provincial. I bet you that the average Californian has tried more foods than the average Portuguese person even knows exist. They don't know much food-wise, that's why they think that salted codfish and cabbage is great food, like someone else mentioned.

Source: I was born in Portugal, lived most of my life in Portugal, now moved to the US because Portugal isn't great. Pay is low, services are atrocious, food is hit and miss (but limited in variety), and people are narrow-minded.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#109
This story looks like a repetition of the playbook seen in Berlin along all these years. Once defined the Startup Heaven, now the housing market is hotter than ever and rents are skyrocketing too.

A lot of people can't deal or afford the rent anymore, building new apartments is going at a slow pace and whenever a new housing project comes out, it's already sold out. Some houses have reached the 1 Million Euro price.

Lisbon is set to follow this same path which will make everything worse for people already living there.

Re: Expats are moving to Portugal

#110
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The food is bad Dear, your credibility: Goodbye.

The national dish of Portugal is salted codfish with cabbage. Fucking gross. I will die on this hill I don't care how many downvotes it gets me. You can find Italian restaurants all over the world. Where are all the Portugese restaurants if this cuisine is so brilliant?

Italians are quite elitist in their food. It seems like every Italian's live purpose is proving to everyone how good they are at cooking.

Spain/Portuguese food isn't snobbish or fancy, but it's generally good. As a matter of fact I find that the baseline for what is bad in these places is actually quite high.

That is not the case for your average Italian restaurant around the world. Most of them are not that great.

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