South Asian immigrants in Portugal game welfare for passports and EU access

So a few things:

I think the uncomfortable truth is that many of the immigrants that come to Portugal (and rest of Southern Europe) particularly South Asia work really hard, many work harder than Portuguese because they have more at stake

Majority of the Uber drivers are South Asian, their cars are generally cleaner and they're much friendlier than the very frustrated, stressed and angry native Portuguese Uber drivers (who are probably angry cause they getting squeezed out of the market by immigrants to be fair)

99% of the South Asians in Portugal I talked to are very honest about their game plan:

• Stay in Portugal 5 years then get the passport
• They work hard, in farming, factories as Uber driver
• Often their wife also works, but they don't register as a couple. Why? Well....
• A large share of them often work illegally (as in unregistered), while registering as unemployed and apply for free welfare benefits which are very easy to get in Portugal, this is 100% welfare fraud
• A lot of the money (both work + welfare) is sent back to families in their home countries, some of the money is invested in real estate at home or in places like Dubai
• Once they get their Portuguese passport after 5 years, they get instant access to the European Union, can live anywhere and they say they will move to UK or Germany, for better work opportunities (and possibly welfare too)

You have to understand one thing, to us this feels like dishonest fraud and it absolutely is but to them they're just hacking the system without considering much about the long term damage

One thing I learnt is the South Asians I met were all very friendly to me and they're just trying to get themselves out of poverty, you gotta imagine what you would do in their situ

What we have to do in Europe is completely shutdown welfare for new immigrants first 10-20 years or so or at least until you've paid net into the system enough

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