Spanish brain drain turns into an exodus

With youth unemployment closing in on 50% (48.56%), twice the European average, young Spaniards have begun to open doors elsewhere in the labout market and have started looking beyond the national borders for employment. What began a few years back as a brain drain, has turned into an exodus.

For the first time in decades, more emigrated from Spain last year than entered the country as immigrants.  A total of 507,740 people left the country and only 417,523 came in. Amongst the rising tide of emigrants are thousands of young people - a large proportion of the 300,000 Spaniards who have left the country since the recession began.

The average emigrant is between 25 and 35 years old, university educated and with no family ties.  Most are prepared to take "anything available" according to employment agencies helping to place them. The most popular destinations are Germany and France, but the emerging economies in Eastern Europe are growing in popularity.

Germany is looking for engineers, France needs physiotherapists and nurses, Great Britain is also short of nursing staff.

Poland is a popular destination for anyone with technical skills. Norway is popular with doctors. The main problem with finding employment abroad is the language, so not suprisingly language schools are enjoying a boom time.  They have seen a huge increase in demand amongst this age group, especially for English lessons.

Joaquín Nieto, director general of the International Labour Organization (ILO) commented that young people are facing a very "uncertain future" because of the economic crisis and although "it's too early to start talking about a lost generation, the possibility does exist".  In today's economic context, the possibility of finding work overseas "gives young people some light at the end of the tunnel".