James Bryce
By Eloise Horsfield
AN incredible 1,600 Spaniards have applied for one au pair job in London.
Journalist Rosie Murray-West couldn’t believe how many Spanish youngsters (80% of the total) applied when she advertised on website Au Pair World last month.
“The pain in Spain meant we were suddenly awash with applicants,” said Murray-West, who works for the Telegraph.
“They are sometimes comically overqualified,” added the writer, who eventually settled for Spaniard Maria Del Mar Sainz, 27.
Sainz herself, who heralds from Valencia, explained: “We are a well-educated generation but we don’t have a future in Spain.”
The news comes as thousands of Andalucians are leaving home in a bid to find work abroad – many in the UK.
Around 80,000 people are believed to have left the region since 2011 to seek work abroad.
And as the nationwide jobless figures hit an alarming 25 %, it emerged that some 900,000 Spanish residents have left the country in the same period.
In Granada alone, 8,000 adults have left home, with at least three times that number reportedly requesting help in finding work abroad.
Various UK towns, in particular, report seeing a ‘Spanish invasion’.
In Brighton, the number of Spaniards registering for a National Insurance number zoomed up from 370 in 2008 to over 1,000 in 2011.
“Sometimes we wonder if a plane has just come in. There is one after the other through the door,” said Tina Lloyd, senior consultant from Office Angels employment agency in the town.
“They say there are no jobs back home and they are all so friendly and good natured. It is just such a shame when we cannot find them work.”
Carlos Dinapoli, owner of a Spanish restaurant in the town, confirmed the influx. “Sometimes all you hear in the town is Spanish conversations.”
He arrived in the town three years ago. “I came here because it is the coast of London and my daughter was born next to the sea in Spain.”
