Immigrant exodus: a thousand Uber drivers left Lisbon in one week.

Portugal is experiencing a rapid exodus of immigrants. In the ride-hailing sector alone, 1.000 drivers have stopped operating in Lisbon in the last seven days, according to the National Association of TVDE Movement. It is estimated that there are around 9.400 TVDE drivers in the municipality of Lisbon.

Cars are standing idle and the city is already feeling the lack of these professionals on the eve of the summer season, when tourists are arriving, points out the newspaper Expresso, this Friday (29).

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The phenomenon is not limited to TVDE, the acronym for ride-hailing apps in Portugal. Brazilians and immigrants of other nationalities are also affected. They leave the country heading for Spain. or back to their countries of origin. The reasons are multiple: expensive rents, low wages, delays from AIMA (Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum) in renewing documents, difficulty in having diplomas recognized, and reports of xenophobia.

Dependent sectors

Nursing homes, hotels, and restaurants are also facing increasing difficulties. Manuel Lemos, president of the Union of Portuguese Misericórdias, told Expresso that he would not be able to maintain the operation of institutions supporting the elderly without these workers.

“For the past three or four months, several providers, especially in the south of the country, and particularly in the Algarve, have begun to experience more difficulties in recruitment, precisely because there are fewer immigrants. The weight of these workers in this sector is very significant. There are charities where they are the majority,” said Lemos.

In the hotel and restaurant industry, immigrants represented one in three workers in 2023, according to data from the Portuguese Association of Hotels, Restaurants and Similar Establishments (AHRESP).

Numbers

Social Security data for 2024 indicates that around 45 foreign workers left Portugal that year, the highest number since 2015. The report "Employment in Portugal," prepared by CoLABOR under the auspices of the Foundation for Science and Technology, warns that the Portuguese economy is at real risk of collapse if it can no longer rely on this workforce.