WOULD I WANT TO BE A RESIDENT
OF THE COSTA DEL SOL?
Where does one
find large populations of migrants, often the majority community in places,
which integrate with the indigenous people little if not at all, speaking their
own language and hardly attempting to learn the local language?
A clue: the most
popular paper among these swamping migrants is the Daily Mail. They no doubt tut-tut over stories of “unintegrated “
communities of immigrants in the UK (the development may even be given as a
reason why they left). But most of the British living in Spain, especially on
the Costas, are a mirror (no pun) image of the Daily Mail monstering stories: lots and lots of them, keeping to
themselves and not supporting Spain in football or anything else.
There is one key feature
about this unintegrated migration which is absent in other countries, including
the UK. The economies of most of the Costa are, in the most literal sense,
built round it. The grim urbanaciones have been thrown up to house the
foreigners and vast numbers of locals are employed in the business of servicing
their pleasures and needs. (There is the faintest of analogies with London,
with much of luxury and not so luxury new residences being built with a view to
being sold to overseas buyers; but the analogy breaks down in terms of the
numbers who actually come and live in those properties.)
Therefore at one
level there has been a mutually beneficial symbiosis between migrant and
native. By and large, the migrants either don’t work, and direct their UK pensions
into the local economy, or they work in the service and building industries,
where has been more than enough opportunities in the wake of the foreign influx
– until the economic crisis, that is.
Where migration
cause no great economic stress, and there are no huge cultural or religious
differences (leaving aside the youth “culture” on display in certain resorts,
which is not generally that of the wider migrant communities), then populations
seem to rub along beside, but apart from, one another. It is possible to live
in Spain without ever learning a word of Spanish, because your neighbours are
all British, you drink in British bars and, when you go to Spanish restaurant,
it is one where the menu is bi- or tri- lingual and the waiters understand an
order given in English. Shopping at a supermarket can be done wordlessly.
And yet, there are
strains. Spain’s economy has been very hard hit. Unemployment, especially in Andalucía
is high; and the cornucopia of service jobs is perhaps not cornucopia enough.
Spanish jobseekers may come to point a UKIP-ish finger at working migrants.
Also, the Spanish
public services infrastructure, including but not limited to health services,
is greatly stretched by the migrant populations. Under EU rules, the UK gives Spain
a capitation payment for each UK citizen resident in Spain. Those payments
depend on the UK citizens registering their residence. This a lot of
them don’t do, out of ignorance, laziness or for shadier reasons (tax
avoidance, crime, evading creditors?). There is therefore a large official
underestimate of the numbers of migrants, but very real and increasing demand
on the Spanish state by the actual numbers.
The lack of
Spanish language skills among many of the British migrants has a serious
consequence. As the British population ages, in most cases having arrived not
in the first flush of youth or even middle age, the need for social and health
services proportionately rises. Spanish healthcare professionals cannot operate
like waiters, with a functional repertoire of tourist English. Both parties
must well understand each other. When this is often not possible, the Costa
healthcare services have translators sitting in on consultations between
professional and patient. In the case of complicated or serious conditions, or
hospital admissions, this is a necessity which is potentially very inconvenient
and distressing.
I would consider
living (part-time at least) on or near the Costa only if I could achieve a
level of proficiency in Spanish which would allow me live outside, or leave at
will, the Costa British bubble. I would vow to sustain an interest in Spanish
history and culture and, indeed, politics: about all of which many migrants and
their local English language news sources are largely indifferent, except where
politics concerns local developments which may directly improve or diminish the
amenities they enjoy.
How to live in
Spain and avoid being enticed into the bubble? A starting point would be to
find a town or village where the Daily Mail is not offered for sale - which will undoubtedly not be a place on the
Costa itself.
March 2015
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