At issue is the 2020 Intra-EU Labour Mobility Annual Report, based on the latest available statistical data, which states that "Romania, Poland, Italy, Portugal and Bulgaria continued to be the top five countries of origin" of workers in 2019. In particular, these five Member States were, in that year, "the origin of 58 percent of people on mobility" working for another EU country.

Portugal is also mentioned in the report as one of the main countries of origin of highly skilled workers, from areas such as business and administration, science and engineering or teaching.

"The group of highly skilled workers [in labour mobility] compared to the highly skilled in the country of origin is higher among Romanians (22 percent), Bulgarians (13 percent), Portuguese (10 percent) and Poles (8 percent)", the document states.

For the main countries of destination of the Portuguese in labor mobility in the EU, it was France, Germany and Spain. Also on this list is the United Kingdom, which left the European Union at the end of January 2020. In all, in 2019, there were 17.9 million European citizens on labour mobility in another EU country, of whom 13 million were of working age (20-64 years), according to the report, which cites figures from the statistical office, Eurostat. This means that labour mobility continued to grow in 2019, but at a slower pace compared to previous years (compared to 17.6 million in 2018).

The European Commission notes that "people of working age are more likely to move at the beginning of their careers", and that "the likelihood of moving decreases with age". "With the younger population also decreasing in the countries of origin, this may lead to a decrease in mobility flows," the institution said in the report.