Immigrants choose hardship in Spain over returning home

PALMA
SPAIN is offering jobless non-EU immigrants a one-time payout of unemployment benefits in exchange for surrendering their Spanish residency rights. But many immigrants are loath to leave their adopted home.

South American and African immigrants in Spain increasingly find themselves caught in a tough predicament. Unable to gain long-term employment in their host country, they see no attractive prospects back at home, either. Despite high unemployment, many of these immigrants choose to remain in their host nations rather than return to their countries of origin.

In the face of high unemployment rates among immigrants, Spain came up with an initiative in 2008 to support jobless, non-EU citizens who want to return to their countries of origin. In these cases, the government offers a one-time payout of immigrants' full unemployment benefits.

Usually, the lump sum amounts to about 10'000 euros. However, the initiative has been far less popular than the government had expected. Only 1'400 immigrants took up the government's offer in the program's first two months. A likely reason is that immigrants who choose this option must give up their right to live in Spain. “Many immigrants leave feeling they've failed,” said Rocio Redondo of Spain's Red Cross. “Of course they are thankful for the financial aid, but almost all of them have difficulty giving up their Spanish papers.”