Business
Update: Reverse brain drain from Europe to Africa widens as more Portuguese flock to Mozambique
“It was a fresh start and the best decision I ever made,” he says.
Henrique Banze, Mozambique’s deputy foreign minister, says about 200 tourist and working visas are being granted every day, marking a “huge increase” on recent years.
“In the last two years there have been many more Portuguese coming,” he says adding: “I suppose it must be to do with the crisis in Portugal.”
It is difficult to get firm figures for the influx, but Mr. Banze says it is clear that thousands of Portuguese people are relocating each year.
The vast majority – around 20,000, according to some reports – base themselves in Maputo, where the majority of business opportunities exist.
“A tsunami hit Portugal and now everyone is coming here,” says Mr Dias. “I don’t believe the economic situation in Portugal will improve within the next five years.”
Two years ago, when he arrived, most of his countrymen in Mozambique were manual labourers. Now, he says, the middle classes are moving in. Some, he says, are working for large mining companies with operations in Mozambique. Others, like him, come to set up their own businesses.
