Feature: Emigration is a way out for unemployed Portuguese

LISBON (Xinhua) - For some people in Portugal, there is a way out of the nagative effect of economic crisis: by emigrating.

"My wife, Ana Julia, and I emigrated because of a lack of perspectives, not because we wanted an adventure," said Rodrigo Rivera, 27, who moved to Brazil with his wife in September last year and helped launch the campaign "We Have Emigrated but We Haven't Given Up" (Emigramos mas nao desistimos).

Rodrigo holds a degree in international relations and admitted they didn't go to great lengths to find a job. "But that was down to one reason," he explained. "We have eyes to see and read what happens to those who make an effort to work in Portugal. They are trampled on by poverty-level wages and precarious contracts and are forced to live without dignity."

He is now working at an IT support center in the southern city of Curitiba, and said he earns more than double what he'd be earning back home if he was on the national minimum wage of $662 US dollars.

"I'm not even going to go into my wife, Ana Julia's case, who would probably be doing an unpaid internship," he added.

Rodrigo's wife, Ana Julia was offered a paid internship there last year, and they grabbed the opportunity by the horns. But Rodrigo hasn't forgotten about the dire situation in his home country, and is now one of the key people behind the movement "We Have Emigrated but We Haven't Given Up."   "I have always been very engaged in popular demonstrations in Portugal," he said. "And it really affects me seeing things from so far away without being able to intervene directly, so starting this movement helped clear by conscience a bit - though not much because I know that I am one of those less afflicted."

The idea to start the movement, which now has over 1,000 likes on Facebook, arose following a conversation with his friends, who mentioned that the subject of emigration wasn't being talked about enough in debates and in the European elections.

"In Portugal, everyone knows several people who have to emigrate," Rodrigo said. "We have beaten the historic rate of the 1960s, when people fled the colonial war and the hunger of the new state. And today we are also emigrating because of necessity, and not just because we want to leave the eurozone and go on an adventure."

According to a recent report released by the National Institute of Statistics (INE), the number of Portuguese exiles reached a record high of 128,000 last year.

Emigration is one of the consequences the country must bear for the harsh austerity policy the Portuguese government has been implementing as it strives to meet the deficit reduction targets included in the 78-billion-euro bailout program it signed in May 2011.

Consecutive protests have shown just how the Portuguese society feel about austerity, with thousands taking to the street to protest cuts in salaries and unemployment.

Portugal's ruling Social Democrats recently announced that Portugal had seen the biggest fall in decades in unemployment since 1984, after statistics body Eurostat revealed the figure had dropped from 17.3 percent last year to 14.6 percent.

However, they were confronted with the notion that unemployment figures had dropped due to mass emigration, with opposition parties accusing the government of manipulating the figures.

The government has encouraged the Portuguese to look abroad for opportunities. However, analysts warn the negative effects emigration will have on the economy in the long-term.

"We are clearly seeing a significant number of young, qualified people emigrating, either because they can't find work here or because they find much better paid jobs abroad," economist Paulo Pinho told Xinhua. "These people are highly qualified, with a good knowledge of languages and a relatively advanced level of education which Portugal invested in, but it's other countries which are going to reap the benefits out of that investment."

Paulo Pinho said the most serious consequence of highly qualified young workers leaving was that they wouldn't be contributing to the social security system in Portugal in future and that the country will be missing out on innovative ideas, which will in turn have an impact on the country's economic growth. "It's a very complex problem," he said.