During the second ordinary session of parliament in June, Cape Verde’s prime minister responded to the main opposition party, which recently warned of a “mass exodus” of young people from the country. According to Ulisse Correia and Silva, these departures do not reflect a lack of conditions in the archipelago, but rather the search for new opportunities in destination countries, especially Portugal.
“Today, labour mobility is competitive, there is supply and demand”, the Cape Verdean Prime Minister stressed, in response to the opposition PAICV leader, João Batista Pereira, who has proposed public competitions for access to management positions in the country, which he believes contribute to the emigration of young people.
Ulisses Correia e Silva explained that the exodus from Cape Verde is a phenomenon that occurs in other countries and is not the result of a “lack of conditions” in the country, but rather of “new opportunities” emerging in other parts of the world.
The Cape Verdean Prime Minister also mentioned that the mobility agreement with Portugal provides vocational training for young people so that they can work with access to labour rights such as social security and health care.
It should be recalled that Cape Verde and Portugal signed a Memorandum of Understanding on labour mobility in October 2022, at a time when there has been an increase in interest in visas and work in Portugal, as well as an increase in recruitment by Portuguese companies in Cape Verde.
According to data from the National Statistics Institute (INE), of the almost 18,000 Cape Verdeans who emigrated between 2015 and 2020, almost 62% went to Portugal, almost 18% to the United States and 6.6% to France.
According to INE, only 20% of those who left the country were looking for work, with the majority, just over 39%, leaving to study, around 23% to visit family and just over 9% for health reasons.
Source: RFI
