08/12/2015 00:00
TW
0

Dear Sir,
The latest MDB reports on the depopulation of young Spaniards heading to Northern Europe seeking better working opportunities. This is nothing new. I didn’t meet my first Spaniard on the beach in the Costa Brava but as a Gastarbeiter (guest worker) in a coal mine in the German Ruhrgebiet. Although it gives away my age, this was way back at the time when the Berlin Wall was built to stop East Germans rejecting their country for booming West Germany (1961). With this source of labour restriction, Germany was obliged to attract Italians, Spanish, Greeks and Turks in that order.

This process still continues today as the Daily Bulletin has noticed. A problem for all immigrants is that they may be treated as a worker but less likely as a guest. For Germany its preference for foreign workers outlined in the 60s has resulted in completely the reverse order in terms of numbers arriving and even more troubling with the number of those settling permanently – this had not been part of the plan.

Mike Lillico
Playa de Palma