Living Abroad Becomes Attractive Option to Escape Crisis in Brazil

08/21/2017 - 10h53

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ANA ESTELA DE SOUSA PINTO

ÉRICA FRAGA

FROM SÃO PAULO

Brazilians who left the country because of the crisis are not thinking of returning, and the number of families who decide to live abroad keeps growing.

The number of visas granted by the American government to Brazilians amounted to 3,287 last year. It is twice the number registered in 2014.

"Every month we talk to people who want to know about the steps to move here," says businesswoman Vivian Mayrink Cirillo, who moved with her husband and their three children to the city of Weston, Florida, two and a half years ago.

Last year, when Folha interviewed her, Cirillo already had considered the possibility of not coming back to Brazil, although she kept her brand management company active in Brazil.

Portuguese economist Vasco Severo, who returned to Lisbon after four years in Brazil, says he does not think about coming back to Brazil either.

"When I arrived in Brazil, many fellow Portuguese contacted me because they also wanted to move to Brazil. Now it is the Brazilians who contact me because they want to move to Portugal," says Severo. "Brazil is no longer in the radar of qualified young professionals looking for jobs," says the economist.

Severo arrived in Brazil in 2012 after he was transferred by the consulting company he was working for. His salary in Brazilian currency was not attractive anymore and he decided to look for another job in Lisbon.

He says that, in 2013, when he got married in Brazil, there were 40 Portuguese people at the ceremony. Last year, only four of them were still in the country. Today, there are only two.

In Portugal, Severo became a reference to Brazilians looking for a new country to live. "There are many cases, all of them qualified professionals."

Translated by THOMAS MUELLO

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