Leaving the country in search of work

MORE and more of Spain’s young are leaving the country in search of work.

The numbers of Spaniards under the age of 30 emigrating has gone up by 40.9 per cent since the economic crisis first hit Spain in 2008, according to the National Statistics Institute (INE).

And the number of people in the 30 to 34 year age group has risen by 41.4 per cent.

In total 14,084 of the 59,724 Spaniards who left the country in 2012 were aged between 20 and 34.

But that figure is dwarfed by the numbers of non-Spaniards who moved away. In total 476,748 people left Spain.

That is because many immigrants who moved here during good times have been unable to find jobs, and are deciding to move back to their home countries.

Unemployment stands at 26.26 per cent with 55.13 per cent of under-25s jobless. There are fears that a ‘brain drain’ effect might be taking place. A UGT trade union report stated that more educated and well trained people are leaving. Top destination is Germany, which received 21,000 Spaniards is 2012. Other popular countries are the UK and France. In South America Ecuador followed by Venezuela, Argentina, Colombia, Brazil and Peru are all popular.