| Portugal fully understands that. That is why they did make that law in the first place. The problem is what they expected was something like "highly skilled migration contributing directly or indirectly to Portugal". But that isn't exactly how it played out, which is why they removed tax brakes. I mean think about it. Just attracting talented people to be in your country and paying some tax isn't enough. You also need to be able to capitalize on them. E.g. by them working for your companies, them creating companies in your country, them settling in your country, etc. But AFIK that didn't really happen in case of Portugal. > any move to attract talent is seen as net-negative, not really moves to attract talent are very common, through often focused with different dynamic then the US through you might confuse the sentiment with the negative sentiment wrt. people coming as refuges instead of immigrants which are often perceived as not being skilled and just taking advantage of social systems etc., the same way it's commonly the case in the US (e.g. wrt. people from Mexico). Just to be clear I say perceived, because enough refuges are quite skilled/qualified just their qualifications are often not recognized due to bureaucratic reasons --- As a side not IMHO/AFIK the huge raise on apartment rent/buy cost in Lisbon is likely _not_ majorly related to the previous tax break programs. Mainly such raises can be observed in most relevant western (and beyond) Capitals around the world, driven by the most wealthy of mainly the western world (but also beyond, e.g. Saudi Arabia) using them as money banks and very term investments. The moment many do it will (did) also drive speculative investment. Which can lead to somewhat of a looping effect. Or in other words it's a side effect of the past ~10 years of (especially western) world economics. |