In Portugal, after the pandemic, there was a good idea: they wanted to attract digital nomads to the country, who would bring their high salaries and a lot of money. Many German influencers, particularly Twitch streamer Simon Unge, who jokingly is said to “own the island,” settled on the island of Madeira due to tax advantages. But this policy is now showing problems.
That was the plan: As the website xataka reports, Portugal introduced a visa for digital nomads in 2022:
- To obtain the visa, one needed an income that was 4 times higher than the minimum wage in Portugal – one had to earn about 3,280 euros.
- To make it appealing for digital nomads, they were granted tax advantages.
- The plan worked, but it brought new disadvantages.
Young Portuguese are leaving Portugal because the country is too expensive
This is now the result: The problem is that shop and property owners wanted to benefit from the high-income digital nomads by raising their prices so that many Portuguese can no longer afford to live in Portugal.
As a result, 25% of the Portuguese now live abroad – and 40% of all young Portuguese with a university degree leave the country, as Essential Business reports.
This is seen as a brain drain because it is precisely the best-educated young people who leave the country to start their careers elsewhere.
Why are so many leaving? The problem is a growing gap between the money people have in their pockets and the ongoing costs that occur every month:
- The average monthly salary in Portugal is projected to be about 1,463 euros in 2024 – an increase of 4.3% from the previous year.
- However, the average rent increased by 10.5% in 2023.
What does this have to do with Unge? The German Twitch streamers living in Madeira have their own “special conditions” that attract them to Madeira. Influencer AnniTheDuck was allowed to say in an ARD documentary in February 2024 without contradiction that she moved to Madeira solely for the “good weather.” Most German influencers likely live in Madeira for other reasons.
Unge has lived there since late 2018, which is already 4 years before the visa for digital nomads came about. The island offered particularly attractive tax conditions, which are still ongoing but can no longer be newly obtained. Critics speak of tax evasion by the influencers.
But these streamers are also digital nomads and bring the problems that they earn money very differently than the locals, thus disrupting the price structure of the country: Twitch streamer explains why rich influencers are urgently moving to Madeira with Unge now
