Portugal is a beautiful, safe, and welcoming country, internationally admired for its sun, sea, gastronomy, and hospitality, but it faces serious difficulties for those who live and work there. João Paulo Rocha, First Secretary of the Federation of Diaspora Associations (FAD), wrote an opinion piece warning that a generation that studied and worked diligently faces insufficient salaries to buy or rent a home, remaining in their parents' house until later in life. In 2024, more than 33,000 people emigrated permanently from Portugal, of which approximately 28,000 were Portuguese, and the country continues to age, with approximately 189 elderly for every 100 young people in 2025.
The author highlights that Portugal needs immigration, but must also ask itself why so many Portuguese continue to leave. Public services in health, justice, education, and housing remain under pressure, despite the State collecting more revenue than it did ten years ago. Portuguese people face difficulties in obtaining medical appointments, family doctors, surgeries, and access to nursing homes for the elderly, while education suffers from a lack of teachers and difficult working conditions.
The text mentions that problems such as housing, demographics, slow justice, health, and education have persisted across different governments without resolution, suggesting the need for policies that last longer than a single legislative term. The author criticizes a political culture focused more on announcements and inaugurations than on solving real problems, and questions trust in institutions when there are different speeds of response depending on economic, political, or media power.
Rocha concludes that the true success of Portugal cannot be measured only by who arrives as tourists or immigrants, but also by who stays: the family that can buy a home, the young person who decides to have children, the emigrant who returns, the elderly person who ages with dignity, and the worker who can live from their salary. The author questions whether Portugal is being left to the children and how many Portuguese people actually want to stay or believe it is worth coming back.
