Spain is producing great numbers of highly educated emigrants, a recent study by the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) has revealed.
Figures show that more than 50,000 Spaniards left the country during 2011, and it is estimated that more than 11,000 are currently living in Ireland.
The study found that the number of Spanish emigrants has increased by 36.6 per cent from 2010 to 2011, meaning that for the first time in decades emigration is exceeding immigration in Spain.
Andreu Domingo, deputy director of the Demographic Studies at the Autonomous University of Barcelona (UAB), explains that the reasons for this dramatic increase lie with the economic crisis that Spain has suffered since 2008 as well as recent budget cuts.
“When the crisis started in 2008, foreigners living in Spain started to emigrate, but when former President Zapatero announced the general budget cuts in 2010, Spanish people were conscious of the actual situation.
“Since then emigration figures have been increasing parallel to negative economic figures.”
Spanish demographer Juan Fernández Cordón highlights that the average age bracket of current Spanish emigrants is between 32 and 36.
“The young are the ones who emigrate because they are highly qualified and know languages,” he says. “It is frustrating to have superbly formed a generation who will end up working in other countries in jobs that not always correspond to their education.”
This is indeed the case, at least anecdotally, of most Spaniards living in Ireland. And María Garzón is just one example.
Originally from Andalusia and currently unemployed, Garzón is a graduate in English philology who speaks four languages fluently and is currently learning Irish. She came to Ireland two years ago and started working as an au pair, as many young Spanish women do.
"I came to Ireland just when I finished my studies,” she says. “Nobody had a job in my hometown at that time and I decided to try Ireland for two months, but I'm already here for two years.
“I love Dublin because it is a charming little city. Now my au pair contract has expired and I’m looking for a better job. Sometimes I miss my little southern village in Spain, but I’m very optimistic and think I’ll find a job very soon.”
La Mancha native Rosa Jaramillo, who is a music teacher living in Ireland for nine months, is currently working as an au pair in Kildare. She finished at university eight years ago but found herself stuck in unemployment.
“I tried many times to get a job as a school teacher in the public sector,” she says, “but I didn’t succeed. I also tried for an administrative civil servant position and even for a post officer, but there were thousands of applicants for very few places.
“I came here [to Ireland] because my sister, who is an English teacher, lived in Ireland for two years and after that she got a job in a private school in Spain. She encouraged me to come here and improve my English.”
Jaramillo comments on the fact that speaking English is not only a requirement for being a teacher in any field in Spain, but is also a plus for any graduate who aspires to get a decent job commensurate with their degree. This is the reason why many Spanish graduates come to Ireland to improve their English.
Francisco Sánchez, a 34-year-old geologist from Salamanca, has been living in Dublin for just a few weeks. “I was currently unemployed and came to Ireland to improve my English,” he says. “I have my degree and some working experience, but I know that I won’t get a decent job in Spain if I’m not fluent in English.
“I knew a few nice Irish buddies who were studying Spanish in Salamanca last year and that’s why I came to Dublin.”
But not every Spaniard living in Dublin is a highly educated immigrant. According to media reports there is at least one Spanish national currently living in Dublin’s only homeless hostel for migrants, located on Charlemont St.
The INE study concludes with a sobering statistic: that the numbers of Spanish emigrants in the first trimester of this year will go beyond those recorded for the same period in 2011. Increasing numbers of these will surely be younger, less qualified people, and the outflow shows no signs of abating.
