A section of the beach in Nazare, Portugal. (or it was--now it looks like Malibu)
Article by Michael Reagan in NewsMax
Calif. Puts Portugal in Line for the Next 'Paradise Lost'
We know it’s poor manners to gloat about the misfortunes of others, but the schadenfreude is running strong here today.
We’ve warned for months that states run by people who think importing Californians is a free lunch are in for a rude awakening.
Now, it has happened to an entire country!
Poor Portugal.
A headline in the Los Angeles Times makes our point for us, "Welcome to Portugal, the new expat haven. Californians, please go home."
Portugal, for the time being, is so affordable people who lived in trailers in California can enjoy a two-story, rooftop apartment "for a fraction of the rent."
Our trailer refugee is a perfect example of leftists fleeing what leftism has wrought, "Her escape from her native California came amid growing costs of living, encroaching wildfires and a waning sense of safety after the burglary of a neighbor’s home."
And she’s not alone in her obliviousness, "Within the mix of retirees, digital nomads and young families fed up with issues including the costs of housing and healthcare, Trumpian politics and pandemic policies, Californians are making themselves known in a country once considered the forgotten sibling of Spain."
"Known" and not in a good way.
Portugal is a small country of only 10.3 million and it's discovering, like North Carolina before it (population 10.7 million), that importing thousands of foreigners with strange ideas puts a real burden on the culture and residents already there.
There's no real upside to encouraging people who don’t speak the language, don’t value the culture, tend to congregate with other foreigners and who have a special sense of entitlement to migrate to your land.
The Portuguese’ first clue should have been when the newcomers began pestering them with questions regarding where to find the best this, or the best that.
Now the schools are offering bilingual education and Californians are coming for the "affordable healthcare" and free college education.
Why does that sound familiar?
As one Ugly Californian announced, "I feel like we as Californians have more particular things we want. We want the sun, the water, the amenities, the fresh and organic food. We also tend to have higher incomes than other Americans so people get annoyed when we ask our budgeting questions in other expat groups."
No word on whether she was wearing a mask when making that declaration.
These left coast expats are also the only people who really left the country after Trump was elected, so you can imagine what their politics are.
Portuguese can thank a merciful God the Californians can’t vote.
At least for now.
But after five years, if they can pass a Portuguese fluency test along with other questions, they can become citizens. As the Times delicately put it, "[Californians] are perhaps more flexible in their patriotism."
Since it would require a gas spectrometer to find traces of patriotism in the average California leftist, we think that is quite the understatement.
In addition to attitude problems, the Californians are the source of a wave of gentrification and housing cost increases that is driving the Portuguese out of their homes.
The Times explains, "But resentment of newcomers is growing. Angelenos can’t always escape — and sometimes are at the root of — questions over gentrification, income disparities and immigration. The phrase expat itself has become loaded in Lisbon, a city that attracts tens of thousands of working-class immigrants from Brazil, Ukraine, Romania and India.
"In Facebook groups and cafe meetups, well-to-do Westerners debate over how to define themselves. On the streets, Portuguese activists have protested against evictions and skyrocketing rents caused in part by foreigners with banks that count in dollars and pounds."
Instead of putting stooges in front of news cameras and telling citizens everything is really hunky-dory, the Portuguese government took decisive action. "As of this year, the nation’s popular 'golden visa' program, which offers residency to foreigners who buy homes priced at 500,000 euros or more — Americans dominate the program — is no longer taking applications in the biggest cities.
"That includes Lisbon, Porto and the Algarve, the southern coastal region long popular with retirees and lovers of surf culture."
The government can do this, while the U.S. is paralyzed, because making it hard for Americans to immigrate is never termed "racist."
And Portugal doesn’t need workers in food processing or agriculture.
If it did, Californians wouldn’t do the work anyway.
https://www.newsmax.com/reagan/lisbon-california-expat/2022/05/21/id/1070825/
