Towards desertification?
It's a well-known phenomenon: every year, Portugal loses some of its inhabitants! Over the past decade, the country has lost 2% of its population. At the same time, the population is increasingly concentrated in the cities and along the coast, leaving the interior behind. Lisbon and the surrounding area, as well as the Algarve, are the only regions to record demographic growth. After reaching a demographic peak in 2008, with 10.6 million inhabitants, the country's population has begun to decline, and now stands at 10.3 million. Projections are worrying and spectacular: at the current rate, by 2050, the Portuguese population will have dwindled to just 9 million, and to just over 7 million by 2099! Emigration, coupled with a low fertility rate (1.42 children per woman), is the main reason for this deficit. Over 68,000 people leave the country every year to try their luck elsewhere, mainly in Europe: in the UK and Spain, in particular, but also in Switzerland, France (by 2020, the number of Portuguese living in France will have risen to 600,000), Germany and Luxembourg. While emigration in Portugal sometimes gives the impression of being the natural reflex of a people of conquistadores, the reality is less romantic... Then as now, if the Portuguese emigrate, it is above all in the hope of work and better living conditions. With an emigration rate of over 21%, Portugal is the European country from which most people emigrate. More than one in five Portuguese people live abroad! What's new is that emigrants are now often young and qualified, an undeniable loss of resources for their country of origin. Alentejo is no exception to these trends: the desertification observed since the 1970s has not been curbed by the various development strategies. The region's population will have fallen by 6.9% by 2021, with a negative natural and migratory balance. Over the same period, while Évora and Viana do Alentejo saw their populations increase slightly, the municipality of Mourão alone lost almost 18% of its population. In the Beja district, the statistics are comparable: some municipalities lost between 16% and 21% of their population, while births fell by more than 10%. As for average population density, while it stands at 24 inhabitants per km2 in Alentejo (compared with 114 nationwide), it has fallen to 5.6 inhabitants per km2 in Mértola, in the Baixo Alentejo!
An aging population
As in the rest of Europe, Portugal's population is aging. Over 23% of Portugal's resident population is over 65, with a median age of 46.2. Half the population is over 45. This makes Portugal the second oldest country in Europe, after Italy and ahead of Finland, Greece and Germany. Not only does this mean a drop in economic activity and dynamism, it is also a source of growing expenditure for the State, which is obliged to provide care for the elderly, including retirement pensions. All the more so since, as life expectancy rises, so does the average age. This trend is even more severe in Alentejo, where there are almost 229 elderly people (over 65) for every 100 young people (under 20). Nationally, the ratio is 182 per 100. Another foreseeable consequence of an ageing population is the loss of the working population: this could reach 30% in Portugal by 2050! Another worrying prospect for the Portuguese economy.
Immigration to the rescue
But Portugal is reacting and trying to find solutions. Going against the grain of other European countries seeking to restrict the entry of migrants into their territory, Portugal is banking on immigration to stem its demographic decline. In May 2018, at the Socialist Party congress, Prime Minister Antonio Costa declared, "We need more immigration and we will not tolerate any xenophobic discourse". The statement is still valid: in Portugal, it's the arrival of foreigners on the territory that can help control net migration. In 2020, for example, the balance was positive: the difference between inflows and outflows was +41,000 people. And the number of immigrants is constantly rising. In the same year, there were 662,095 resident foreigners in Portugal. In addition to retired European citizens (English, French...), many of whom are attracted by the sunshine, tax advantages and security, Portugal welcomes a large number of Brazilians every year (nearly a third of all immigrants), as well as Cape Verdeans, Romanians, Ukrainians, Chinese, Italians... The vast majority of these immigrants speak Portuguese as their mother tongue (Brazil, Cape Verde, Angola...). The number of immigrants from the Indian subcontinent (Indians, Nepalese...) is also growing, with tens of thousands arriving in Portugal every year, much to the relief of Alentejo farmers..
The two official languages of Portugal
Surprisingly, Portuguese was only recognized as Portugal's official language in 2001! It was on this date that Portuguese was mentioned for the first time in the Portuguese Constitution, article 11: "Portuguese is the official language Like French, Portuguese is a Romance language, derived from Latin, which originated in the 3rd century BC, when the Romans invaded the Iberian Peninsula. Portuguese is the fourth most influential European language in the world, after English, Spanish and French. It is used by almost 200 million Portuguese speakers, particularly in the former colonized countries of Brazil, Angola, Mozambique and Cape Verde: Brazil, Angola, Mozambique, Cape Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe, Macao and East Timor. Unusually, Portuguese is not the country's only official language. In the north of the country, a dialect of the Tras-os-Montes region, Mirandese, is still spoken by almost 10,000 people in an area of 500 km2!
