Reversal of a long-established trend

July 21, 2015 1:11 PM

Conquistadors no more: Spaniards are flocking to Latin America because they need jobs In 2012, the most recent year for which statistics are available, Spaniards made up some 85 percent of all European immigrants to Latin America and the Caribbean, according to the EU/IOM report. Unemployment in Spain has hovered around a mind-boggling 25 percent in recent years. But that may be the least of it. Youth unemployment has been double that, at around 50 percent.
posted by Michele in California (15 comments total)

In Ireland we certainly have had thousands of Spanish kids here every summer learning English. I feel sorry for them, with that level of unemployment.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 1:42 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Not just Spaniards to South-America either: a lot of Portugese people have immigrated to Angola and other former colonies for the same reason...
posted by MartinWisse at 1:47 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you want to know why half of the Americas calls Spaniards gallegos, it's because Spanish economic emigration is *traditional* for many regions. So, eh, not terribly new.

There are so many Spaniards who have been migrating (again) to Germany that there's an updated version of Vente a Alemania, Pepe called Perdiendo el Norte.
posted by sukeban at 1:55 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

A few years back, when the world's economy and the Spanish one were tanking, and Chile was riding it out with dignity, we had a ton of Spanish here in Chile, both working at and running cafe's and the like, as well as working mid level professional jobs.
The Spanish have levelled out, but now there's a ton of peruvians, colombians, ecuadorians, haitians, etc., working as domestic service and restaurant wait staff, and in construction jobs and the like.
A few years ago, the only black people you'd see on the street were probably basketball players who'd flown into Chile to play a local team and had a day off (ie.: rare and far between). Now it's getting more and more common to see different colors, accents, etc. This is a big deal for a geographically and culturally insular, isolated place like Chile.
Some people grumble about peruvians 'stealing our jobs', etc., but as a fairly well off middle class professional person, I'm all for it. More diversity, more cuisines, more viewpoints.
posted by signal at 1:58 PM on July 21, 2015 [4 favorites]

I don't know, something about the article seems quite off to me, like it took a 240 page (very interesting) report and carefully chose a couple of indicators to construct some dramatic news, when as sukeban says, this is pretty much business as usual. Latam is the natural destination for the unemployed, decently educated youth, as much as it is for Spanish businesses which have lessened the impact of the financial crisis thanks to the latam markets.
posted by valdesm at 2:11 PM on July 21, 2015

(On the subject of gallegos, I'd like to note that this cover of Sweet Home Alabama by Siniestro Total about a migrant guy working as a waiter in the Caribbean and missing grey rainy Galicia is thirty years old. Also the unofficial hymn of Galicia. Morriña is the Galician equivalent of saudade.)
posted by sukeban at 2:49 PM on July 21, 2015 [1 favorite]

Literally the reason for colonialism.
posted by ethansr at 5:45 PM on July 21, 2015

Hmm. Is there a lot of Greek emigration now too? In the US at least, you usually associate Greek economic immigrants with previous generations.
posted by pravit at 6:36 PM on July 21, 2015

Bwithh: ""Conquistadors no more" - wtf?"

Yep. Plus, it should really be "Conquistadores no more".
posted by signal at 7:15 PM on July 21, 2015

There are quite a lot of Spanish people where I live in the Caribbean, young people coming for work, and it is a Dutch/French island.
posted by snofoam at 7:16 PM on July 21, 2015

Plus, it should really be "Conquistadores no more".

Great, now I've got the grafitti scene from Life of Brian stuck in my head.
posted by JaredSeth at 3:55 AM on July 22, 2015 [1 favorite]

pravit: apparently Greek migration to Australia is on the rise, according to Reuters.
posted by mirthe at 7:53 AM on July 22, 2015

Hmm. Is there a lot of Greek emigration now too? In the US at least, you usually associate Greek economic immigrants with previous generations.

No kidding. Not just educated youth (~200K people out of 11M iirc), but older people, people with relatives abroad (regardless of education/qualifications) etc.
posted by ersatz at 9:15 AM on July 22, 2015

Of course, it isn't "news" that Spanish people sometimes relocate to Latin America. The news here is that the aggregate numbers have shifted from one direction to the other.
posted by Michele in California at 1:33 PM on July 22, 2015

Well, actually we didn't have a sizeable Latin American immigrant population until the late 90s/ early 00s, so it's more like going back to the traditional pattern of Spanish economic emigration.

We've always considered ourselves a country of emigrants, from the indianos who went to the Americas and got rich to the temp workers who still travel to France to pick grapes every September passing through the Gastarbeiter from the 60s-70s, not to mention the Civil War exiles.
posted by sukeban at 5:04 AM on July 23, 2015