Moving to Portugal - Six Months Later: What I've Learned | Portugal Vlog Ep. 13

Comments · 56

• IR

  @ireneramalho8950 · 4 months ago

  Local here. Very honest approach. I have to add bureaucracy is just as daunting to locals🤣

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• TI

  @TinaSotis · 3 months ago

  Amazon never happened.  Wow. That sounds like a dream.❤❤

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• 1N

  @1ntr0v3r73d · 4 months ago

  We&apos;re immigrating to Portugal soon. The 10 year+ path to citizenship didn&apos;t deter us. We visited in the winter and the weather didn&apos;t deter us. The bureaucracy didn&apos;t deter us (we engaged a company to help us). We&apos;ve always been relatively independent (by necessity for me as an introvert)... but the authenticity of the Portuguese people has been something we found refreshing. Despite Chega (and I don&apos;t disagree with everything they stand for) I don&apos;t feel unwelcome in Portugal. Quite the opposite. I know taxes will be higher, but the cost of living is skyrocketing here in the US, just when I&apos;m retiring.<br>In the end, we just would like a slower pace, a simpler life and not waking up each day to more nightmare scenarios like we currently do. They may happen, but at least there&apos;s the beauty of the sights, the comfort of the food, wine and beer, the history and culture for which we will make the effort to learn the language and integrate. Thank you Portugal for this opportunity.

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• SI

  @simplylive2466 · 4 months ago

  Even better than the shopping malls is when you live in regions where there are none (which is most of the country), so you buy from all the little local stores, often tucked into little side streets, where only the locals realise they are there

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• TE

  @TechCornerTV · 4 months ago

  Hi David, I bumped in this video and it was nice to see it. I have just a few notes regarding Portugal is less welcoming, that it is a fact. The problem was that there the citizenship should be a life decision and it was being handled as a business process by a lot of people as just a way to have european passport and all the benifics that comes with it. Now you really have to make a commitment to become a citizen as the name says. In general we are still very welcoming for imigrants. But with all this imigration our services started to crack in the health area, in the housing area. An imigrant that cames from USA has a much finantial capacity that any middle class Portuguese, so the houses for sale increased to prices that is not possible to the average family to support. Is not that we don&apos;t like the imigrants, we like everybody, but these things are making our life real hard. <br>Me personally, I consider myself lucky and stable and life, but wherever I look around, I see friends strugling just to buy a house or keep a stable life with their income. I&apos;m not sure how this will work out for my kids in the future. Is just that.<br>Also there was some increase in crime that is somehow associated with imigrants from some countries, I&apos;m not saying that this is a fact or true, it is the general perception. So as always, in the middle is the sweetspot, we are in a transition phase and we will stabilize in a point that will work for everyone.

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• PA

  @pauljeremiah · 4 months ago

  Really thoughtful and balanced reflection, Dave. Watching this from Ireland, much of it feels very familiar: the beauty, the slower pace, the importance of cafés, pubs, beaches, streets and shared public spaces, but also the bureaucracy and the occasional sense that everything depends on who you get on the day.<br><br>I especially appreciated that you didn’t romanticise Portugal as a perfect escape from America. There’s something very honest about acknowledging that a place can be beautiful, warm, communal and restorative, while still being complicated, uncertain and difficult to navigate. The point about immigration was particularly interesting, too, because we’re having similar conversations in Ireland about housing, identity, pressure on services, and how easily immigrants can be scapegoated for deeper structural problems.<br><br>And “wherever you go, there you are” really lands. Moving to a new country can change your surroundings, your pace of life, even your sense of possibility, but it doesn’t magically solve everything. This felt like a genuinely useful reflection, not just on Portugal but on what it truly means to try to build a life somewhere new.

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• DU

  @DuralexPT · 4 months ago

  I have to correct you in one thing, it’s not that Portuguese buy less things or do without something, we have a trait that is rarely seen in such massive amounts in other countries, we are “desenrascados”, the best way to explain is having the capacity of solving a problem or get out of a difficult situation without having many resources or, sometimes even, without the right knowledge. That’s to say that, many times, if we need some thing and it’s not available, we do them ourselves or find someone who can. But, like everyone else, we mostly buy what we need, the trait I described is like a skill for difficult situations. Not sure I conveyed the concept clearly, but there you go.

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• FC

  @fcardoso67 · 4 months ago

  In Portugal we can use: Amazon from Spain, Germany, France, or other europeans countries, but we have all other small companies that we prefere to order, they are more local.

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• TR

  @trinamaia6531 · 4 months ago

  This was a very thought provoking video 👍💕 We lived in Portugal from 2022 to the end of 2023 but moved back to California to help care for family with health issues. &nbsp;We miss so many things about living in Covilhã, near Serra de Estrela. &nbsp;You summed up many of them here but also a very important point…wherever you go…there you are. &nbsp;😂❤ So true…

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• AN

  @andrewmckay3471 · 4 months ago

  Good video. &nbsp;I’m glad you mentioned the sentiment towards &nbsp;immigrants. &nbsp;It goes all ways. &nbsp;I’m lucky to have an Irish passport which not only makes it easier but also friendlier. &nbsp;Do not let Americans think they won’t hear or feel it. &nbsp;Especially if they don’t speak or try to speak Portuguese. &nbsp;I do try and continue to learn. &nbsp;I see plenty who don’t. &nbsp;Also, you have to mention the negative impact we have by being in Portugal to the locals. &nbsp;Hence my former point. &nbsp;Portuguese people are losing their culture where the immigrants are moving. &nbsp;And they are (rightfully) protective about it.

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• DA

  @DarthFurball · 4 months ago

  To your point 4, the rolling up of the welcome mat is not just specific to those from poorer countries - it is now specifically targeted against those from Brazil, the U.S., and Bangladesh / Nepal (collectively referred to as &quot;Indians&quot;) for differing reasons. Most of the investment and rental property in Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve is owned by the Chinese, Brits, Germans, Italians, and rich Portuguese - though that is overlooked as many politicians have had their pockets lined, and it is easier to scapegoat certain groups in populist messaging.

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• RA

  @rayvogensen2983 · 4 months ago

  Up in the north, in Chaves, where we live, I recently noticed at my local pizza place that the person making the pizza was Brazilian and the two servers were Brazilian. &nbsp;Recently, Vodafone, a major phone company, sent two technicians to our house, and both were also Brazilian. &nbsp;At a large all-you-can-eat sushi/Chinese restaurant, all the workers, except for the owners, were Nepalese. &nbsp;Most of the lettuce and exotic fruit crops grown in the Alentejo by multinationals hire Nepalese and Bangladeshi workers, who are brought in on &quot;shady&quot; contracts. &nbsp;There is a big case going on now in which lawyers and people from the Portuguese consulates abroad &quot;legalized&quot; immigrants in exchange for money. &nbsp;Recently in the news I saw that in a small town in the Alentejo, near Beja, residence documents were given out to over 100 people, all living at the same address. &nbsp;Sadly, a lot of corruption has added to the huge influx of foreigners.

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