Migrants in Portugal struggle to cope amid housing crisis

Lisbon: Some migrants in Portugal are turning to temporary accommodation like tents, amid a housing crisis in the country that makes most available accommodation unaffordable to them.

Since shortly after Andreia Costa arrived in Portugal from Brazil in 2022, ‘home’ has been a campsite on the outskirts of the capital Lisbon.

Like many other migrants, and even some Portuguese locals, the 50-year-old carpenter found herself priced out of accommodation in the big cities and towns and was forced to turn to tents and camper vans in order to survive.

In a report published on August 6, rents in Lisbon have nearly doubled since 2015, while house prices have risen by 186 percent.

Although the costs of buying or renting residential property have risen dramatically, Portugal still has one of Western Europe’s lowest average wages. So, more and more people are struggling to cope.

The problem appears to be twofold: Portugal has a chronic shortage of affordable housing, while at the same time the number of foreigners who can afford higher prices than the locals and migrants has recently risen. According to media reports, some of these foreigners have been lured by Portugal’s granting of residency rights to those who buy or rent property. Tax breaks are also offered by the state, which make moving to Portugal or working from there attractive to EU citizens as well as to people from countries outside the EU, such as the USA.

Coupled with this situation, Portugal has been experiencing a tourist boom, and so many of the rental properties have been turned over to short-term holiday lets, further squeezing the housing market.

When Costa arrived in Portugal, it was via a legal route, but she had just 600 euros in her pocket. Although she trained as a carpenter, she could only find cleaning jobs in Portugal, paid at the then national minimum wage of 760 euros a month.

With monthly rental for a small room starting at around 400 euros, things quickly became unaffordable. “I shouldn’t have to pay more than 50 percent of my salary for a room,” Costa said. “Renting really suffocates people’s lives.”

So, in order to make ends meet, Costa bought herself a small tent and set it up on an empty plot at the edge of Lisbon. As the months passed, more and more people joined her. When there were too many people on the site, they were asked to leave as it was privately owned.

Costa said that she would fetch water from the beach showers nearby and use portable cooking equipment to make herself meals. There was no street lighting where she was staying, so she had to make her way home in total darkness.

The housing crisis affects many strands of Portuguese society. But migrants, who often work in precarious and lower-paid jobs, are often the most vulnerable, according to the Migration Observatory, OM.

That hasn’t stopped migrants heading to Portugal. In 2023, the foreign population of Portugal topped one million, more than twice the figure in 2018.

Brazilians like Costa make up the biggest migrant community, as they share a language with the Portuguese, but more and more migrants from Southeast Asia are also heading for Portugal to work in jobs in agriculture, hospitality, delivery, or as drivers for companies like Uber.

Housing researcher Simone Tulumello said that the types of foreigners who are heading to Portugal represent two extremes: “Migrants who are so-called poor…and a ‘rich’ migration of investors, pensioners and highly qualified professionals.”

Portugal’s development model, “heavily focused on real estate and tourism, is causing this explosion in housing prices, which impacts everyone,” explains Tulumello.

As well as having to pay high prices, migrants can also find it difficult to access the rental market. Marina Carreiras, a migration researcher at the EU-funded Migration Research Hub, said that they often face discrimination when they are looking for somewhere to rent, and have less information on how to seek support if they need it.

Although Brazilians speak Portuguese, their accents mark them out. A recent study by the migration association Casa do Brasil found that some people renting properties had added a notice saying they wouldn’t rent to Brazilians.

OM data has found that 19 percent of third country nationals from non-EU states live in “overcrowded accommodation,” compared with around eight percent of Portuguese. Nepalis and Bangladeshis are particularly affected, OM stated.

“Foreigners with low incomes have to live in overcrowded conditions to somehow have a roof over their heads,” said OM Director Catarina Reis de Oliveira, adding that many were renting beds to rest for a few hours during the day.

Things for migrants haven’t got easier under Portugal’s current center-right government, which took power in March.

In June, the government announced a change to rules regarding migrants and residency. Previously, migrants could register for what was called a “manifestation of interest” and could move to Portugal without an employment contract. After a year of paying social security, they could apply for residency.

This facility has now been removed. A spokesperson from the government said the new system has left around 400,000 people waiting for their status to be settled. “This situation, with hundreds of thousands of cases pending a decision…was truly despicable from a human perspective,” the source said, adding the new government had closed the door on irregular migration and would speed up visa processes.

One new government policy intended to help migrants and also attract wealthy investors is a new type of golden visa (a scheme that enables foreigners to obtain residency in return for investment.) Introduced in June, the “residence permit for social investment” expands the types of investment that allow foreigners to qualify for a ‘golden visa’ to include affordable housing for locals or accommodation for migrants.

For Costa, who spoke in 2023, a positive mindset is the way forward. She made friends with another Brazilian woman living in the camp, Marcia Leandro. And eventually, she managed to save up enough money to buy the small caravan. “I don’t need more than this space to be happy.”

Costa’s dreams don’t stop there. She said that one day she hoped to save up enough to buy a plot of land so that she can offer a home to others who are affected by the housing crisis. However, in May this year, the two were evicted from their improvised campsite and forced to move on once again.