Our reporter Julián López has travelled to Portugal to investigate the reasons behind, and consequences of, brain drain there - and the possible solutions being explored.
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00:00Portugal is currently not up to date.
00:02Hi, I'm Julián López, a reporter for Euronews.
00:04This week I've travelled all the way to Lisbon, Portugal,
00:07to talk to you about brain leakage.
00:12It's a real challenge, both for this country
00:15and for the whole of the European Union,
00:17especially for young people and students
00:19currently being trained on university campuses like this one.
00:24Have you heard about this concept?
00:31Brain leakage is the departure of qualified workers
00:34in search of better wages or living conditions and work.
00:38The places that host this highly educated workforce prosper.
00:43But what about the regions left behind?
00:47They become what are called talent development traps.
00:51The qualified workforce is reduced,
00:54productivity decreases,
00:56higher education is decelerated,
00:59demography suffers.
01:02This becomes a loop that forces new generations of young people
01:05to think about emigrating.
01:09According to the European Commission,
01:10this situation affects 82 regions,
01:14almost 30% of the population of the European Union.
01:20Portugal is a clear example of the current challenges
01:23and the possible solutions that are being explored.
01:2730% of Portuguese young people live abroad.
01:3170% of Portuguese immigrants are under 40 years old.
01:36To retain qualified young people,
01:39the Portuguese government has launched a plan
01:41to cut taxes on workers between 18 and 35 years old.
01:47The Portuguese government considers that this measure
01:49can help up to 400,000 young people.
01:53However, the initiative has not served to dissolve young people
01:57like Constança Pijoal.
02:05In the early hours of the afternoon,
02:07a second day of work begins for the couple,
02:09both licensed in law.
02:12They are looking for a house to rent 14,000 km away.
02:16They are about to move to East Timor, in Southeast Asia.
02:21Constança, a 25-year-old lawyer,
02:23has found a new job in a legal office
02:27with much better conditions than the one she enjoys in Portugal.
02:31They provide more benefits,
02:33such as housing subsidies, a car,
02:36a salary considerably higher than here,
02:40meaning that I will have more purchasing power than here.
02:44If we wanted to live alone, we wouldn't have one.
02:47Like many young people here,
02:49Constança and Joao see Portugal as a land of poor unemployment,
02:53low wages, high taxes,
02:56unaffordable housing and poor working conditions.
03:00In my area, there is a lot of brain drain,
03:04I don't want to call it slavery,
03:07but there is a lot of pressure,
03:09many hours of work and little rest,
03:12which is a factor that leads many young people to want to leave Portugal.
03:16In addition to frustration,
03:19I think our generation is already starting to go through this,
03:23it's getting annoying.
03:25I feel that I love my country, I really do,
03:29and for me, if I had the right conditions,
03:31I wouldn't hesitate,
03:33if it weren't for my experience, I wouldn't hesitate to stay here.
03:41In addition to resigning from his current job in a German company,
03:44Joao will have to stop training rugby, his passion since he was a child.
03:50Of course I will miss it, but as in everything in life,
03:53you have to make decisions,
03:55you have to abdicate some things in the short term,
03:58so that in the long term they are done.
04:00Joao's father, a former immigrant in Germany and the United Kingdom,
04:04understands his son's project
04:06and says he worries about the future of his country.
04:09We are sending away people with a lot of knowledge
04:13and we are importing people with very little knowledge.
04:17This is a risk not for João,
04:19this is a risk for the country,
04:21and I think it's terrible.
04:23To continue to develop society,
04:25our economy and everything else,
04:27we need people who know how to think,
04:29who are good readers,
04:31scientists, people who use culture.
04:37The youth exodus is a common topic of discussion
04:40between the couple and their friends in Lisbon.
04:44Mariana is the manager of Alianzas Comerciales,
04:47her own sister works in Spain.
04:49Portugal is currently not at the same level as the youth,
04:52now in this particular case,
04:54I did not emigrate,
04:56but it is difficult to think of a more autonomous life,
04:59I still live at my parents' house.
05:02Any of our friends has already asked this question,
05:05anyone in a family has a cousin or an uncle who did it,
05:09and it no longer appears as a big surprise.
05:12We have a very invasive population,
05:15this will create a big problem in terms of social security.
05:21Therefore, I think it was important for the government
05:24to think of a measure that anticipates this,
05:27because if this is not addressed in the long term,
05:30it will create many problems.
05:33In an attempt to face the situation,
05:35the regions of the European Union,
05:37the Member States and the European Commission
05:40are participating in what they call
05:42talent promotion mechanisms.
05:44Its effects are already visible in works like this one.
05:51At the end of 2025, this hospital in Évora
05:54will be the first hospital in Spain
05:56to have a youth exodus.
05:59At the end of 2025, this hospital in Évora,
06:02in the Alentejo region,
06:04should offer almost 500 beds,
06:06an initial investment of about 200 million euros
06:09to provide better health services
06:12to about half a million people,
06:14but also to train and retain qualified health workers
06:19in a place especially affected by the brain leak.
06:23It is expected that the region will lose
06:2530% of its population by 2080.
06:30Tiago Pereira is the regional coordinator
06:32of the talent promotion mechanism.
06:35We have, due to demographic issues,
06:38a double loss of talent,
06:40because we train less qualified young people
06:44and we are less competitive,
06:46so we can retain less talent in our region.
06:50It is estimated that by 2030,
06:52Alentejo will lose 20% of its students
06:55with higher education.
06:57We have to retain the talent we have created in the region
07:00and this infrastructure and the medical school
07:02that will be born next door
07:04are crucial for this process.
07:06When it is completed at the end of next year,
07:08as we expect,
07:09we will have health professionals
07:11that we did not have
07:13and that will have to come to our territory.
07:15We will have to have specialized technicians
07:17that we did not have
07:19and then we will have to have the training
07:21that we did not have until now.
07:23Therefore, in this micro sector,
07:25people over the next two or three years
07:28will see effective results.
07:34About a quarter of the budget for the project
07:37comes from the European Regional Development Fund.
07:40Regional, national and European authorities
07:43expect that the hospital and the training center
07:46create up to 2,000 qualified jobs here.
07:51For more information, visit www.ilo.org
07:54www.ilo.org