Free-D

Got a job? If so, you might count yourself very lucky. Across Europe the employment situation seems to be looking rather “hairy” to say the least, and Spain is no exception. The thing is that we’re usually so preoccupied by the job situation that we forget to consider what a problem employment itself can actually be.

A good example of this is the sector of house-helps or “domestics” of which at least half in Salamanca are immigrants. Although generally they’re very grateful to have a job here at all, the fact remains that the majority find themselves in a most tenuous and vulnerable situation.

Two thirds of these domestic employees work without any official recognition and consequently without any official protection. This often means that they work without regular timetables, decent breaks, social security or medical cover. There does actually exist a royal decree to ensure that all workers get at minimum of 36 hours rest a week. Which is fine, if you’re aware of royal decrees and the rest of it. The problem is (I suspect) that most of these immigrants are not entirely cognisant of how Spanish social and civil laws generally operate.

Many of them in fact come from cultures where such safety nets don’t really exist. Even if you’re from a more stable background and have all the advantages which a certain amount of cultural similarity can bring, arranging something as simple as a medical card can be a trying experience. It’s not as if Salamanca is the only city experiencing such difficulties , just as Spain isn’t the only European country with its share of “invisible” workers. These problems are widespread over the continent. England in the last few years has seen a large number of cases of appalling abuse involving immigrants from all over the world. Further south, it wasn’t surprising to see that my old chum Silvio Berlusconi has refused to pursue the use (and abuse) of illegal immigrants in Italy; one can only be very sorry for Italians who have to endure a premier whose interests seem to lie deep within the cruel and murky world of exploitation.

The exploited of the world find themselves in a desperate situation; trapped by the perceptions people have of foreigners, trapped by their need for work and trapped by their lack of cultural knowledge. It’s funny, that many law abiding immigrants are seen as no better than criminals, whilst those real criminals who exploit them seem to remain as invisible to the law as their employees do to social services.