With the rise in Covid cases in Portugal, Brazilians who are scheduled to move to the country fear they will be affected by a new wave of travel restrictions and border closures.
In January 2021, at the worst moment of the pandemic, Portugal canceled all flights to and from Brazil. The measure lasted 77 days and created enormous difficulties on both sides of the Atlantic.
Now, the emergence of the omicron variant, the cancellation of New Year’s Eve parties in several Portuguese cities and the return of anti-Covid measures have generated fears that the authorities will again isolate the country.
“Every day I receive reports of panic. There are people who have already taken their child out of school, who have already sold their house,” says businesswoman PatrÃcia Lemos, who works as a consultant for Brazilian immigration.
In groups on social media, Brazilians report nervousness about the possibility of a new closure of borders, although the Portuguese government has not given any signs in this regard. The current travel rules remain in effect until at least the next January 9th.
With tickets for early February, journalist Ricardo Lombardi and his family are keen to accelerate the move. “We were calm until last week, but we are already considering moving forward to the first week of January, before the 9th, because afterwards we don’t know what will happen.”
Initially, the family would leave for the European country in August, but health problems ended up delaying the plans. Looking for a better quality of life, especially for his 8-year-old daughter, Lombardi has practically everything ready to go, including the sale of most of the furniture.
Businesswoman Caroline Paes, who works with executive training, is also part of the group that evaluates moving forward to Portugal. “I’ve seen this film before. And it’s not just about leaving Brazil and leaving, we have changes to make, furniture to sell, a school to enroll our children. There are several decisions that, at times, cannot be revoked”, she says. “I’m already detaching myself from my house, arranging all the documentation. Because when I need to, I just want to buy a ticket and go. I’m already a Portuguese citizen and I have family there, so luckily I can make that decision at the last minute.”
Moving along with her husband and son, Paes says that the imposition of a new general confinement –as happened in Austria– would make her postpone the project until the second half of 2022.
Based on the experiences of her clients, businesswoman PatrÃcia Lemos says that there were also many people who preferred to postpone their plans to a time of less uncertainty.
Although a possible tightening of restrictions will affect those planning to move to Portugal, the measure would have a special impact on those traveling as tourists and staying in the country to live and work without proper documentation. For this reason, the nursing technician Débora, who asked not to have her last name revealed, bought a ticket to arrive in Portugal in the first half of December.
Born in Goiás, she reports being afraid of spending a long period as an irregular migrant in Europe, but says she doesn’t see alternatives for raising her child in Brazil. Unlike other countries in the European Union, Portugal allows the regularization of foreigners in this situation in a relatively simple way. The processes, however, usually drag on for years until the granting of residence permits. During this period, immigrants are socially and economically vulnerable.
As the Portuguese borders were closed to Brazilian tourists between March 2020 and September 1 this year, there is still a repressed demand from those who intend to immigrate in this way.
Thus, entities supporting immigrants already report an intense flow since the reopening of borders for tourists. Brazilians are the largest foreign community in the country. In 2020, the number of legal residents grew for the fourth consecutive year, reaching a record 183,993: an increase of 21.6% compared to 2019. The number does not include people with dual citizenship from Portugal or another EU country, nor who resides irregularly in the country. Itamaraty estimates that 300,000 Brazilians live in Portugal.
The number of Covid cases in the country has increased in recent weeks, but remain at a much lower level than in the same period in 2020. Portugal, with about 10 million inhabitants, has one of the highest vaccine coverage in the world, with more than 87% of the population fully vaccinated.
On Monday (6), there were 948 patients hospitalized due to the disease, 135 of which in intensive care units. A year ago, there were 3,268 hospitalizations, 514 of which in intensive care.
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