Portuguese professionals are moving to Mozambique for a brighter future
Skift Take
Mozambique's healthy economy is attracting a generation of post-colonial Portuguese who see a cloudy future in Europe but promise in the southeast African nation.
In their new apartment in Maputo, the vibrant and cosmopolitan capital of Mozambique, Bruno Gabriel and his girlfriend unpack their last suitcases, still trying to settle in their new surroundings.
The Portuguese couple relocated to the southeastern African country a few months ago, making a deliberate career move to swap the economic uncertainty of their crisis-hit country for the prospect of a better future abroad. They are part of a growing Portuguese community fleeing the severe eurozone crisis in search for jobs and economic opportunities in their country's former colony.
"In Europe everybody is a little bit afraid with their own future because (of) the crisis, worldwide crisis, in terms of economics," says Gabriel, a marketing director who has head-hunted to work in Maputo. "Once we start to enter the labor business, once we start to work, we understand that to plan the future is a little bit more difficult than what you expected."
Although Mozambique gained its independence from Portugal in 1975, and retains Portuguese as its national language, many in the African countr
