Jessica, I want to cover something else here.
I was a member of several British and South African expat groups. Only very rich South Africans can afford to immigrate, so it's important that they immigrate to a cheap, realtively 'easy' country. Portugal has encouraged immigrants in order to bring money into the country. Portugal advertises a lot in South African media in order to bring rich South Africans into Portugal through your Golden Visa program.
When I first voiced my displeasue on the South African groups, there waa a backlash from some telling me I had to be grateful because where else could I go. I explained that I had many, many choices as a result of holding several passports, including an EU one. Psychologically, if one cannot go anywhere else, I imagine one has to pretend, at least to oneself, that everything is rosy.
The responses on the British expat sites wrere different. There were two general voices heard. The first lot were the one's who, whenever anyone pointed out something negative, they came up with, "But if you speak Portuguese to them, then they will open up to you."
Welll, I have lived in multiple countries where people spoke other languages, and nowhere ever did I come up with that. People either shook their heads that they didn't understand, or they responded to you in English. Portugal is the only country where one constantly hears this refrain, "But if you show them that you are interested in learning their language, then they will be polite to you, help you, be nice to you, etc." Interestingly, these were always people who had some sort of skin in the game. They had taken on Portuguese citienship or were half Portuguese, or something.
I find the argument specious.
The other lot were people who didn't have any familial or skin in the game, who came to live in the country, mostly because it was cheap and sunny. They could also have gone to live in Spain, Greece, Malta, etc. They had EU membership, and those were thoe ones who were packing up and leaving.
I would imagine an American couldn't just pack up and leave, same as South Africans. So, while you consider the other side, remember that if Portugal wants people with money to live there, maybe the country had get its ducks in a row.
Thank you for listening.
