lornamayvine

Hi all. Just wanted some advice on moving to Spain from England. Does anyone know what it's like for a brit to live in Castillejar? Is there much work? Are the locals friendly? Any advice is much appreciated. We are currently learning the language. Thanks

missile

It is a nice little town, but well off the tourist trail. I would suggest without speaking Spanish you have two chances of finding employment >

• Bob Hope
• No Hope

lurchio

I live near Baza. I am afraid that you have a very poor chance of getting a job there. Seasonally, you may get lucky picking Vegatables etc., but that's about it. There is a small British ex pat Community there, but I have to say they are mostly retired. The Spanish are as friendly as anywhere else in Rural Spain, they just need to get used to you.

This is important, there is currently a massive plan for intensive pig farming on the Alti Plano, and your choice of village is slap bang in the middle of the proposal. Lots are selling, Estate Agents are playing it down and private sellers are just plain in denial.

There are plenty of other nice places around here, but you may have been tempted by prices you saw there, now you know why. Look at Galera if you want lots of UK ex pats around you, or theres Castril, Huescar, Cullar, Baza or similar. Job prospects are still really low.

If you do not have any private income, this is not an area for you if you need a job to live! The area is awash with unemployed Spaniards, you will have Zero chance in the local Labour market. Sorry to be direct.

As regards the language, you will probably need reasonable Spanish to get by, but the local dialect (a sort of Andaluz) is something you will need to get used to!!!

Johncarzx

Anyone thinking of coming to Spain from the UK needing to earn an income in Spain would be making a mistake. Spain has huge unemployment and over 20% of the population live below the poverty line. Unless you are fluent in Spanish and highly skilled the best you will find is illegal skivvy work, cleaning, barmaid, and prostitution.

Fred James

I totally agree John. Why would any sane person want to come and try and get a job in Spain unless seriously qualified with skills difficult to find in Spain. Germany would be a much better bet and more Germans speak English than Spaniards.

Sadly the reason often is that they enjoyed their recent Spanish holiday and fancy living in a nice climate with cheap food and drink.

Longlegpete

While i take the point that Fred and John make i dont agree with some of it, is the case of the OP with reference to an inland rural area or areas or most of Spain then I'm sure work is hard to find and without fluent Spanish or the local dialects you will struggle.

If you are in a part of Spain with a reasonably size expat community of Brits, Dutch, German etc most speak English, and if you are willing to turn your hand to most things you can find work, it amazing the amount of people that want things done be it gardens, small renovations, property checking etc but cant find a reliable person to do it, do what you say you'll do when you say you'll do it and you will get work.

With similar thinking as Fred, come to Spain thinking your have a Holliday with a bit of work when you fancy it like a lot of brits seam to then you will struggle

Johncarzx

What you describe sounds a bit of a breadline existence. The OP will need to decide where offers the best standard of living and lifestyle security.

Cats-R-Us

We live on the outskirts of Castillejar and love it. However, the comments above should be taken into account. There are now more pig farms than there were when we moved up here 14 years ago but they are not allowed to be within a certain distance of a built up area. Choose to live more rural and you may be near one. Not all of us are retired but finding work for those that need to is limited. Seasonal veg picking is not easy to come by. If it is a small farm then family usually do it. If it is in areas that are worked by companies from Murcia they tend to bus in their picking gangs and move them around as needed. There are already local Spanish who do odd jobs to make ends meet, a few English as well. Also you will not earn the same amount per hour as if you were in the UK. Even the qualified, Spanish electrician (and plumber) only charged us around 10€ per hour. It is wise to assume that any Spaniard you meet will understand English as a lot here understand it and French, so do not speak badly of anyone thinking they will not understand, also you may not be speaking about them but a lot are inter-related so you may be saying something about a cousin, aunt, brother etc. A number of them, quite fairly, think the same as the English when foreigners move to the UK - you live into our country, speak our language. However, most of them are friendly if you try speaking to them in their language. The climate here may be warmer than the UK but we do have seasons, one of which can bring snow even to our village. We live in a cave home but still have a log burner going most evenings, since the end of October this year and will keep it going until around the end of March.

Longlegpete

On the contrary, it is as with most things in life dependent on the effort one puts in, work well and hard and there are many opportunities from what i can see, it's of course dependant on area but that's the case all over.

Johncarzx

I suppose it’s difficult to comment much further as the OPs have basically told us nothing about themselves and not provided any further information. The OPs maybe one of those many ‘’one off’’ phantom posts. In any event if they are hard workers who like pig farms and fruit picking, Spain maybe the place for them. Also if they currently live in a cardboard box in a shop doorway they will have little to lose other than having to go back on the waiting list for a new shop doorway if they return to the UK. However if they do need to earn a living in Spain it would be difficult to see how they would pass the ‘’Micky Mouse’’ residency criteria if applied. I have never known any EU citizen even a destitute tramp deported from Spain.