Life in Spain for the Polish migrant

Since Spain opened its labour market to workers from the new EU member states like Poland, Poles have been searching for jobs there, in spite of the fact that Spain is a long way from home, and more importantly, in spite of the language barrier, which Romanians, whose language is similar to Spanish, don't face. Poles used to take up seasonal jobs previously, but now, many of them have decided to stay for good.

Officially Spain issued almost 12 thousand work permits for Poles last year, but on the spot one immediately finds out there are hundreds of thousands of them, even though many might say the language is a bit of a problem. As it usually is in a tourist country, there are plenty of seasonal jobs going, and Poles definitely snatch them first happily. When Alicja arrived in Barcelona at the end of June, she could hardly say a few words in Spanish, but when she got the job as a waitress, the knowledge of English turned out to be much more useful to her and her Polish friends:

"I met quite a lot of Polish people who came to Barcelona to work just for holidays. Not all of them spoke Spanish but that wasn't necessary There were a lot of Irish pubs and there one can work even without speaking Spanish. All of us also tried to have fun besides working. I had enough time to get to know life in Barcelona in Catalonia which I guess is much different than the rest of the country. I had a really good time at work and I started to learnSpanish of which I'm happy and just continuing it."

Now' Alicja's nearest plan is to take up studies in Spain. When Grazyna was first looking for a job or trabajo in Spanish, everybody pointed at another side of the pub or restaurant informing her that cigarettes are there - she couldn't get through with her Spanish since tabacco and trabajo may sound similar... Relations with her first employers turned out also very tense:

"When I came here I found a flat to live in and then a job but in my first two jobs I was fired within a month without any particular reason given to me. I think I just spoke poor Spanish and the employers just took advantage of that. The first one even valued my work for only 2 euros per hour. I couldn't believe it. It became very difficult to me to make ends meet. Thankfully I found this job through friends. I've been working for an Englishman on Costa del Sol for almost 3 months, have good relations with my Spanish manager and finally earn decent money. I'm sure this will let me stay here some longer time in Andalusia now."

The language barrier is probably also one of the main obstacles why Spain can't beat England or Ireland in terms of the size of the immigrant Polish community. The wages are lower here with an average about 5 euros per hour, but it's not so bad, the Poles say, since life's generally not too expensive, and Poles still have a chance to save up before they come back to Poland. Mike Souter, the head of Current Affairs at REM radio station in San Pedro, says since tourism is so popular in Spain, people will gravitate mainly in that direction, which often means seasonal jobs. However, the trend is changing since Spain is becoming more and more open for work force from new EU member states:

"There are many many people from Eastern Europe here in Spain. I think the main reason that that happened is the amnesty that Spain announced last year as regards those living here illegally. A lot of people from Eastern Europe were already here but weren't legal residents in Spain. So the government said Ok, we're going to change all this. That encouraged further people to come. So e.g. now you'll find a lot of Polish people, Russians, Ukrainians, Lithuanians working in restaurants and bars helping out in houses and gardens and jobs like that."

As experts say, one of the things that helps Poles find employment in Spain even though they just start learning the language, is the good reputation they have earned in other countries that flung their doors open to Polish labourers ahead of Spain.

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Tags demography, eu enlargement, foreign workers, poles, spain

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