Portugal has always been among the poorest countries in Europe, but in recent years it has been hit especially hard by globalization, with significant numbers of jobs moving to Asia and Eastern European upstarts like Poland.
Portugal has the dubious honor of being the European country with the widest socioeconomic discrepancy -- with an income gap even wider than that in the United States. Around one million Portuguese citizens -- one-tenth of the population -- must live on less than €10 ($15.50)
