Spain's Exodus of Labor
MOWRER, RICHARD SCOTT
A flight of labor has replaced an earlier flight of capital in Franco depression Spain's Exodus of Labor By Richard Scott Mowrer MADRID AN EXODUS of Spanish labor to lands offering better wages...
...The trouble is that Spain is in a depression...
...This would create new industries and new jobs...
...Two years ago Spain's economy was harrassed by a serious flight of capital abroad...
...Unemployment in Spain is estimated to have affected 300,000 commercial and industrial workers, under-employment a million others...
...Women emigrants, it is emphasized here, must be protected against the risk of prostitution...
...A partial solution to the problem would be for the Franco Government to encourage foreign capital to invest in Spain, which it has been reluctant to do...
...Spaniards who have gone abroad and found jobs there without going through regular Government channels are now liable to extradition proceedings and prosecution...
...How can he fairly be retained in this country while workers without training are allowed to go abroad and earn more than he does...
...Now the shoe is on the other foot...
...But allowing unwanted, unskilled workers to go abroad while holding back skilled workers that are, or will be, needed here poses a problem...
...Regulations restricting emigration are justified by what the Government describes as its duty to exercise "protective action to safeguard the liberty and dignity" of Spaniards within the requirements of "the national welfare and the doctrine of the Catholic church...
...A few months ago the Franco Government was less concerned by the exodus...
...Protective action, the Government explains, is designed to shield Spaniards wishing to find work abroad from the depredations of "unscrupulous exploiters...
...Spaniards have heard, correctly, that "outside" they can earn two or three times more than they do here on full pay with overtime...
...Opponents of the Franco regime exploited the mood by circulating clandestine leaflets saying: "For more than a year a group of capitalist traitors has been depriving Spain of a great part of its foreign exchange by depositing it abroad...
...The private recruiting of labor by foreigners visiting Spain is also a criminal offense...
...The effect has been to reduce the value of the peseta, thereby nullifying years of work by millions of Spaniards who must watch helplessly the plundering of the nation by bankers...
...of whom barely get along on their meager earnings...
...It seemed a good idea to allow surplus labor to leave the country and thus take the pressure off an unemployment situation which could lead to social unrest...
...Impatient with bureaucratic delays or suspecting, with reason, discrimination against skilled workers in favor of the unskilled, some Spaniards have gone abroad on their own as "tourists...
...The Government's delay at the time in cracking down on illegal expatriation of currency angered low-income Spaniards, many RICHARD SCOTT MOWRER, who has covered Spain for THE NEW LEADER for many years, is also a correspondent for the Christian Science Monitor...
...The outflow of labor represents a loss of potential wealth for Spain which the Government wants to stop, or at least slow down...
...An unknown number of others have been recruited by foreigners here on vacation who have taken advantage of the opportunity to hire Spanish laborers at first hand...
...So much so that bureaucratic red-tape entanglements devised to stem the flow of workers to other countries have been supplemented by legislation making it a criminal offense for Spaniards to emigrate without official approval...
...Failing this, the tendency is for labor to go where capital is: "outside...
...How can a worker be penalized because he has specialized training...
...Skilled and unskilled workers are leaving Spain, their families to follow, some of them never to return...
...A "flight" of labor has replaced the earlier flight of capital...
...Some concerns are already feeling the pinch...
...Because of the shortage of certain types of skilled labor they are unable to fill orders and eventually may have to go out of business...
...This is in addition to the seasonal migration of farm hands who go to France for several weeks to help in the beet fields and vineyards, and in the rice paddies of the Rhone delta...
...So they leave...
...There is unemployment here, whereas the booming economies of West Germany, France, Belgium, Holland and Switzerland welcome foreign labor...
...A flight of labor has replaced an earlier flight of capital in Franco depression Spain's Exodus of Labor By Richard Scott Mowrer MADRID AN EXODUS of Spanish labor to lands offering better wages is causing the Spanish Government serious concern...
...Some 30,000 Spanish workers, including women, have left Spain since summer...
Vol. 43 • December 1960 • No. 47
