Praia - Post Report Question and Answers
What is the relative size of the expatriate community? How would you describe overall morale among expatriates?
Small and mainly Portuguese and French. Morale is good. - Feb 2024
The expat community is pretty small because there aren't a ton of diplomatic missions and almost no big international NGOs (and the ones that are present, such as the Red Cross, mostly do not have expat staff). However, there are ton of dual national Cabo Verdeans, so U.S., Portuguese, French, Dutch, and Luxembourgish persons will find many compatriots. - Aug 2023
Morale is good. The expat community is small. You will get to know many of the expats living in Praia. - Jan 2023
The embassy community is small with 12 Americans, and the expat community is also small. Morale is pretty good; I think everyone tries to find their own things to do, and right now we have a lot of introverts at post who like to spend time at home. - Sep 2018
Only a small number of other diplomatic missions here. Fairly large community of Portuguese professionals. Cabo Verde and Portugal have a complicated relationship, but in general the Cabo Verdeans are very welcoming of foreigners. For those who get out and enjoy the country, morale is high. People who tend to stay at home or at work all the time have a harder time here. Morale at post is good, though we're a tiny post, which means a bad apple can spoil the barrel pretty quickly. - Dec 2017
The expat community here is small; made up of people from Portugal, USA, France, Senegal, Brazil and other parts of Latin America. The overall morale here is pretty good. - Oct 2016
Small. It is good to socialize with non embassy expats. You get tired of hearing all of the gossip within the embassy community. There is a good group of English speaking expats from the U.S., Portugal, Ukraine, UK, that hang out with English speaking Cape Verdeans. They are a lot of fun. Within the embassy community there is a lot of socializing at peoples houses. We love it here, but some people get island fever and/or get bored with the lack of activities. - May 2014
Small but present. There are many Europeans from various embassies and a sizable presence from the UN. - Feb 2011
Pretty small, less than 100 people probably. But it's a tight community. - Sep 2012
Small. - May 2012
Cape Verde is a very migratory country. There are many Cape Verdean-Americans, as well as Cape Verdeans living in Europe, who spend summers or long stretches in country. Otherwise, the expats number about 50 or so people. - Sep 2009
Small. Mostly Portuguese. - Feb 2008
