EU membership enjoys strong approval in new member states largely thanks to the economic firepower they have gained. Euronews Business takes a closer look at the GDP growth story in the new accession states since the bloc’s historic enlargement in 2004.
I feel like the EU is beginning to experience some growth patterns that the USA experienced in the later 20th century where the was a mass migration towards the American Sunbelt in search of better weather and a lower cost of living. However, without the mass building that occurred in the USA during that time, the migration is causing housing unaffordability as working Portuguese families can’t compete with northern pensioners.
I don’t know much about the American phenomenon you mentioned so I can’t comment on that.
In Portugal we have more than 170,000 (state/private) empty houses. A fund of more than 100 million euros (and counting) for the renovation/construction of public/cooperative housing which has been collecting dust for 2 years now. We have the resources to fix this, but our politicians seem more preoccupied in punishing 10K people for being Muslim (they have valid concerns, wrong solutions)