Brexit – or the endless uncertainty surrounding it – has impelled “elevated numbers” of Portuguese based in UK to ‘think again’ and return home.
So says secretary of state for the communities José Luís Carneiro, who has been in Paços do Vila Nova de Poiares this week signing an agreement with the local municipality for the creation of a ‘gabinete de apoio ao emigrante’ as part of the government’s strategy to lure emigrés home to build the nation’s economy.
Thousands of emigrés from all over the world have apparently responded to the campaign, which offers financial help and incentives for all those who left the country during the crisis years (click here).
Over 10,000 nationals, for example, have returned from Switzerland. Then there are the thousands fleeing Venezuela, “among other countries for different motives”.
But the government has “very solid data” to prove that an “elevated number of national citizens who were living in the United Kingdom” are now returning, said Mr Carneiro.
And following the result of the ‘Brexit referendum in 2016’, there was a marked fall in the number of Portuguese citizens leaving Portugal to settle in Great Britain, he added, agreeing that “it is always difficult to calculate” numbers exactly as citizens “are free to circulate and do not need to inform government authorities on decisions relating to their mobility in the European space”.
