fionamw

A friend just related a tale to me about a highly academic, high-achieving, totally bilingual teenager who's been turned down for umpteen job applications and who's now going down the route of using her (Spanish) boyfriend's surname on applications to test the fear that it's prejudice against Johnny Foreigner that's been her problem.
Anyone any stories along those lines? We like to think our kids will be treated as equals if they have the skills & the language, but I'm rapidly concluding otherwise.

CBANDY

That has been on my mind of late (our kids). I work for a large spanish company and although I have not experienced any prejudice from my work colleagues I have experienced it from the general public ie. Bloody guiris everywhere & guiris taking our jobs. I suppose it is really no different to some of the prejudice faced by foreign workers in the uk. My daughter is blonde so I suppose she could be classed as a typical guiri.

What I do know is that if I had to go looking for a job here at the moment I would find it very difficult getting into another Spanish company.

Mike Cross

There does seem to be a protectionist mentality in Spain.

It is more noticable at local level rather than government level though.

The Spanish, like the French and Italians are quite efficient at the "closed shop mentality", you only have to look at the supermarket shelves to see they don't offer much, if anything, of wines or olive oil from other countries.

Offering a job to another nationality is the same thing, I'm sure it worse in Spain than the UK.

In a resession though who can blame them?

Mike.

Jur

Every nation always looks after their own first ! same goes for the Brits!

And ofcourse the offer on Italian oliveoil and French wine is much less in the shops, why the hell would the Spanish shops import those products ?

If I have to employ someone, I do not only look at their language and other professional skills, but this person has to fit in as well !

Mike Cross

Well in the UK you get a choice of Greek, Turkish, Italian, French, Spanish Olive Oil.

You can also purchase wine from every country in the world in any UK supermarket. There are hundreds of products from around the world available in the UK.

Spain, or the Spanish pallet is limited because they don't seem too fussed about trying new foods and wines. They are a very closed nation.

In the UK, supermarkets stock the choice because they know it will make them profits, the Spanish just don't seem too savvy about profits and business.

So it goes without saying they will employ a Spanish person over any other except if the work is deemed too menial for them, then suddenly you are very welcome.

Hondon Rock n Roll

In our local village they advertise in their shop windows, obviously written in spanish - recent example was spanish chica required for a cleaning job.

emsr2d2

[QUOTE=Mike Cross;7496350]Well in the UK you get a choice of Greek, Turkish, Italian, French, Spanish Olive Oil.

You can also purchase wine from every country in the world in any UK supermarket. There are hundreds of products from around the world available in the UK.

Spain, or the Spanish pallet is limited because they don't seem too fussed about trying new foods and wines. They are a very closed nation." END QUOTE.



Without trying to be funny, it's just as well you can buy a whole selection of wines, cheeses, olive oils etc in the UK because quite frankly, our own selection is pretty awful! OK, maybe that was a little unfair on the cheeses, but as far as I know, we're not known for our olive oil production!!!

For my own part, I like going into supermarkets etc in other countries and discovering that they have not succumbed to importing stuff, but are determined to protect their market, support their local enterprises etc.

A friend of mine has a house in France and we are horrified every time we go into the local supermarket to find that the "English" section has grown from what used to be one shelf with Bisto, Marmite and Heinz beans, to an entire aisle stuffed with things we can find in Sainsbury's. We make a point of buying absolutely nothing from that aisle and stick rigidly to the French products. We're in France, why wouldn't we?!

Since moving to Spain, I have bought absolutely nothing "English" - even though certain things are readily available in the bigger supermarkets. I don't want to be seen as one of those Brits that moved abroad but still wants to be surrounded by all the stuff I had in the UK!

Jur

Sure, you can and that´s great. The Spanish pallet limited ? You must be joking, the wines and oils you can get out here are superb and of great variation and that´s just Andalucia. Maybe you should not just get your shopping only at Eroski ! Try the local market.

And Sincerely, my experience is that the Spanish will employ the candidate which fits the bill, foreigner or not.

Mike Cross

Well that's OK ersm2d2.

However, I didn't move to Spain to change my nationality or personality.

Also, the quality and choice of Spanish food, served in restaurants is appalling. They eat the same old tapas or pyella everyday.

Don't get me wrong, I'm no Fish and Chip, burger lover, I like quality food and owned a small hotel which was in the good food guide for 5 years running.

I like French food, they have choice and quality in many eateries.

Spain IMO, has one of the poorest menus in Europe and the average restaurant is quite filthy and low quality.

If you go anywhere in the UK, you will see ethnic food-stores and restaurants catering for many foreign communities from Beigles to Hal al and everything in between. The British often frequent these delis and restaurants and find they can discover new kinds of food from around the world and I happen to think that is good for everyone concerned.

It's a pity Spain cant be bothered to embrace anything new.

Mike

Veleta

EXTREMELY limited. It takes a pretty open minded Spaniard to eat something that isn't Spanish! Your average José certainly likes to stick to what he knows!

Jur

Jeez!, why are you in Spain then and not in France or the UK ? Obviously choice is better. Will Spaniards be employed there before British? And everyone´s so open minded!

Two weeks ago Ayamonte´s city hall organised an day of "international dishes" with Germans, Dutch ánd British cooking for eachother. Big hit and a great mix of all nationalities. So There!

jdr

You can`t move to a country and expect them to change their culture just to suit your taste.
So why didn`t you go to France, there is plenty of French food there.
There is loads of British crap food in restaurants and Brit shops here at highly inflated prices.
The answer is if you want nice food stay in and cook your own to your own taste. ;-))

Jur

Have you seen the many posts lately of many expats having "Lovely Fish ´n Chips" ? Average Joe.

emsr2d2

Oh, don't get me wrong. I've lived in the UK most of my life and if I eat out, it's Italian, or Spanish, or Indian etc etc. And I agree if you're talking about restaurants, there isn't the choice in Spain at all. But when it comes to the kind of things that are sold in supermarkets in order for people to cook their own food at home, I don't think it's unreasonable for them to stock homegrown produce for making Spanish food.

The other reason I think that there are so many "ethnic" restaurants in the UK is that our own cuisine, much like our wine etc is dull, dull, dull. The Spanish may eat paella and tortilla etc for many meals, but if you opened a traditional British restaurant, I can't imagine it would take long for people to be sick to death of steak and kidney pud and roast beef.

I'm all for variety and choice everywhere you go, just that as Brits we have a bad reputation for expecting other countries to provide us with the stuff we have at home (in much the same way that many Brits just blithely assume everyone will speak English everywhere they go). I've never heard a couple of Spanish tourists in an English supermarket saying "What do you mean, you don't stock tortilla espanola or salsa brava?"!

I agree entirely that it's good for people to discover and enjoy other cuisines etc but I'm also impressed when an area or a country or whatever manages to stick to its principles (right or wrong) and support its local businesses in preference to importation.

rachelk

Of course it could be argued that importing food unnecessarily is harmful to the environment. Perhaps the spanish ARE savvy about profits and know that the bulk of their customers will continue to buy home produced goods so it wouldn't make economic sense to import greek olive oil? What's wrong with buying home-produced to help the national economy? How many times over the years have we heard "buy british" as a patriotic rallying cry? Ah but this is spain.

As for the jobs thing, many spaniards are resigned to the fact that without the right contacts they're not going to get the job they want. Foreigners are far less likely to have those contacts.


There's more than a little irony in this thread given that it was meant to be about the prejudices of the spanish towards foreigners