Friday, September 2, 2011

Unemployed Portuguese young people migrate to Africa and Brazil

Portuguese migration to Brazil,
Mozambique and Angola
Thousands of young jobless professionals are fleeing from Portugal's economic crisis for finding jobs in former colonies, such as Brazil and Angola. If 50 years ago young Portuguese left to seek their fortune in richer parts of Europe, today they are packing their bags for booming Brazil, Angola and Mozambique. The reversal of traditional migration patterns is fuelling talk of a "lost generation".

Portugal has always exported some of its manpower, in the past it was blue-collar workers and villagers who left for a better life. Now it's the skilled and well-educated.

It is a historic role reversal, because for decades Portugal lured immigrants from its former colonies in Latin America and Africa.

Source: Google image
Brazil is eager for Portuguese engineers and architects because there is a construction boom ahead of the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics in 2016.

The numbers of young Portuguese leaving for traditional migrant destinations have also risen. In the past two years there has been a 6.3% increase in Portuguese moving to the US, a 16% increase in those moving to Canada and a 4.8% increase in those heading to Australia.



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Vocabulary:
blue collar (adjective): describes people who do work needing strength or physical skill rather than office work
lure (verb): to persuade someone to do something by making it look very attractive.

fuel (verb)  to make something increase or become worse, especially something unpleasant, e.g.: People’s fear of crime is fueled by sensationalist reports.

talk of (noun): conversations and discussions about what may happen, e.g.:
There was no talk of any cuts in wages (salaries).

is fuelling talk of: is increasing or becoming worse the conversations about some subject.

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