The decrease has been explained mainly by the fall in attraction of countries such as the United Kingdom or Angola, according to the latest Emigration Report.
According to the document, prepared by the Emigration Observatory and which compiles data for 2018, in the countries where they are available, “Portuguese emigration continues in a downward trend, but is slowing down”.
This decrease is mainly due to the fall in attraction in the United Kingdom, by the “Brexit effect”, in Angola, “due to the economic crisis triggered by the devaluation of oil prices”, as well as in Switzerland, but also to the “recovery of the Portuguese economy” namely “in terms of job creation”, the report states.
In global terms, the trend “seems to indicate” that “the variations in the volume of Portuguese emigration today depend more on changes in the context of the main destination countries than on the evolution of the Portuguese economy,” it adds.
The number of emigrants has been falling since 2013, when it peaked at 120,000, the peak of this century, rising to 115,000 in 2014, 115,000 also in 2015, 100,000 in 2016 and 85,000 in 2017.
Despite the continuous reduction in emigration to the United Kingdom, this continues to be the country to which more Portuguese emigrate, with 19,000 thousand departures in 2018, against 23,000 in 2017 (minus 16.6 percent) and there has been a decrease since 2015, when there was an increase to 32,000.
According to the report, this reduction “is mainly explained by fears induced by Brexit”, the United Kingdom’s departure from the European Union.
In 2018, the inflow of Portuguese represented 3 percent of total inflows into the United Kingdom, which made this emigration the eighth highest for that country.
The second country of destination of the Portuguese in 2018 was Spain, with 11,000, a figure that is recorded for the first time since the crisis of 2008, followed, with less than 10,000 entries, Switzerland (9,000), France (8,000) and Germany (7,000), and these last two countries recorded values “much lower” than 2017.
While the UK remains the top choice for Portuguese emigrants, the number of applications for UK resident status by Portuguese citizens fell by 77 percent during November, when the campaign for the British legislative elections on 12 December began.
According to the British Home Office, the number of applications for resident status in November was 10,600, significantly less than the 47,300 registered in October.
By the end of November, 220,400 Portuguese nationals had registered in the system of migratory regularisation created because of the departure of the UK from the European Union (EU) and mandatory for after the Brexit.
The settled status is granted to those who have five consecutive years living in the UK, while those who have been in the country for less than five years will have a pre-settled status until they have completed the necessary time.
The Portuguese government estimates that about 400,000 Portuguese live in the UK.
Portugal continues to be the country with the fourth-highest number of nationals registered in the system of migratory regularisation for Europeans, entitled EU Settlement Scheme, behind Poland, Romania and Italy.
In total, according to the British Home Office, nearly 2.6 million people, including Europeans and their families, applied for resident status, of which 2.23 million were completed, 59 percent received a permanent title and 41 percent a provisional title.
The overall number of applications for residence also slowed down by 76 percent in November, when 141,800 were registered, compared to 590,000 in October, although monthly figures fluctuated over the eight months of operation of the system.
Secretary of state for the interior, Brandon Lewis, reiterated the call for European citizens to register, justifying: “EU citizens have made a huge contribution to the UK and we want them to stay.”
The deadline for applying for resident status is 31 December 2020, but the exit agreement negotiated by Prime Minister Boris Johnson in October provides for an additional six months, until 30 June 2021.