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Who’ll be left?
We’re getting worried… In fact, we get worried by ads that our readers submit quite often. The stories behind every classified reflect the state of the country in general.
Bruno Filipe Pires, Edition 664 (10 Feb 2011), 
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For example, over the last 64 weeks, we’ve noticed that more and more people are leaving the country. Of course, our pages have always been used to show the comings and goings of readers – but these days, the phrase “for sale due to leaving the country/ moving abroad”, is becoming evermore frequent.
The most common user profile is a Portuguese, in their 30s, who’s looking for work (or employment) that he or she simply cannot find here.
They put the contents of their homes up for sale (furniture, household appliances,
children’s toys even), as well as their cars. And we ask ourselves: can the country really afford to lose these active members of the population; these families who supposedly are (or should be) the basis of contemporary society?
And what kind of life awaits them abroad?
But the Portuguese aren’t the only ones packing up. In the same period, we’ve seen more and more foreign residents living in the Algarve (some of them retired, others actively employed) submitting ads with the phrase “selling due to return to native country/ moving home”.
Most of these customers are returning to the UK, Germany, Holland – even Brazil. It’s heartbreaking to see that the motivation to “up-sticks and get out” is so strong that many find themselves obliged to off-load family pets in the process.
Only a little while ago, a British client told us over the telephone that she was leaving because “life is getting more and more difficult here”, and that she was concerned that it would get even more so.
Another example is the German reader who had a business in the Algarve for many years. She’s leaving because she’s “sick and tired” of the way the economy here doesn’t work. Her’s is just one example among many small businesses, shops and services that should be bringing dynamism and diversity to the Algarve.
Instead, everyday, they’re closing down.
A little while ago, one of our translators posed the question: “who’ll be left if this goes on?” Just retired people and the corrupt, one wonders?
Certainly, that’s the way it’s looking at the moment…
