She Left Her Country to Look for a Job

Like many young people her age, my daughter was caught by surprise upon completion of her professional training. In the spring she returned to Spain with the intention of looking for a job here — it didn’t really matter what, as long as she could “do her thing.” She got a few interviews, but the conditions that were offered to her always seemed to be abusive: a mere salary, 400 € a month, for a person with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree, who speaks four languages, and who has worked abroad. Such salaries aren’t enough to eat or rent a room in the cities where they’re offered. She would have needed help from her parents — something we were willing to do. But our daughter didn’t want to keep being dependent on us — as this support would in fact subsidize the same employers that are taking advantage of our young people.

This post from a father in Spain about watching his daughter get fed up with applying for jobs in a country where the unemployment rate for young people is 50 percent and being forced to look for opportunities abroad is very good. The father, a research professor, is repulsed that the media refers to young people as a “lost generation,” because he says he comes from an “irresponsible” generation that threw the country into an economic crisis. Sounds familiar.

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