Riots erupt after immigrant stabbing (in Spain)

Originally posted by Roufas
reply to post by Maya00a

 

Although I haven't suffered discrimination by the people in college , or on the streets , getting a job is VERY VERY hard. A legal job that is ... I am pretty sure I could get an illegal job pretty easy , but i don't want to , not after all the trouble an bureucracy to get here legally.

It is funny that they want immigrants to leave so bad when those have quite a big impact in their own economy , obviously those are the ignorants that have no idea how the economy of their own country works , or are simply racist/fascist

I totally agree with you - our Spanish neighbours are friendly enough and when we needed quotes, for a new roof, one of our Spanish friends arranged for 3 local builders to give us quotes but he told us not to use them because they'd charge us a lot more because we're foreigners. Their prices averaged 20,000+ and an English builder quoted just 8,000 - huge difference. My daughter is even friends with one of the Spanish builder's sons yet we're still foreigners.

Your comments about the economy are spot on - the amount of building work here in Malaga is ridiculous but with so many northern europeans moving here or buying a second home here, it was build, build, build. Now the whole thing has grinded to a halt and the foreigners are leaving in droves and many Spanish people are losing their jobs.

This is a tourist area and no visitors means no work for many people - Spanish or foreign. Usually, at this time of year, there's plenty of golfers to keep things afloat and then there's the Christmas holiday season - everywhere is empty. We went to the beach last weekend and saw 5 people!! Many Spanish people don't seem to realise how much their local economy depends on foreigners coming here either as tourists, temporary contracts or permanantly.

If the tourist economy breaks down then this area will go back to rural farming and fishing. I'm not saying that's a bad thing - I don't like how much the area has built up in the last 5 years but I do know that rural life here was hard and the Spanish don't want to go back to that either. They can't have it both ways though and I think maybe they're realising that now.

It's mainly dealing with officialdom and Spanish businesses that's the problem. Our phone has been off for months - Telefonica owe us 155 euros and we have the credit notes from April but they just haven't refunded it or credited it to the account. We owe them 162.00 euros and have just told them we won't pay until they refund/credit our account with what they owe. We've been told for months to expect a cheque within 2 weeks but it never arrives - 8 months waiting and calling weekly! It doesn't make sense because they're losing all the money they'd make from our phone calls.

This morning I received a statement from my bank charging me 30 euros yearly charge for a credit card. I've never had a credit card from them and called (from my mobile) to asked them to refund the 30 euros - the answer was no. I asked them when I can pick up the credit card then and was told I'm no longer eligible for one so I can't have it?!

I've already posted on here about the buildings insurance not paying for my roof which has forced us to pay both the mortgage and rent this year. Lawyers want 5000 up front to take the insurance company to court and a survey costs 2000 up front. As I said above, we've had a quote for 8000 euros so what's the point in paying to go to court and taking the chance that as foreigners we'll lose. Being foreigners shouldn't make a difference but it does!

We've been here 5 years and for the first time we're seriously considering leaving. We have 2 large contracts starting the beginning of 2009 and we're committed to those but after that there's nothing to tie us here other than our daughter is at college until June 2010 and then wants to go to Uni. We don't want to mess up her education but we're seriously considering our options now. Most of our English friends have already left - enough is enough. There are 2 friends left here now and they're also considering moving. One runs a car valet company and the other a butcher's shop - every week the local police visit their premises and ask to see their permits. They've both framed all their permits and put them on the wall so they can be clearly seen. We have a home office and no showroom so luckily we don't have that problem.

Living here as a foreigner - any foreigner - is very difficult.

"Living here as a foreigner - any foreigner - is very difficult."

Then I have a wild, crazy idea for you. Live somewhere else where it is easier, perhaps your homeland? It's not as if someone is forcing foreigners to go and live in Spain...