American not-for-profit cooperative news agency, Associated Press News, cited Spain’s training of migrants to undertake agricultural jobs in rural communities as a good example of a win-win situation.
Here in Spain, rural depopulation has been a problem for decades, in fact as far back as the early 1950s, when, according to the article, “generations of young people left the countryside in search of work and opportunity in cities.” Today, some 81% of Spain’s residents live in urban areas, compared with 1950, when the figure was nearer 60%. And farmers and other agricultural labourers now represent less than 4% of Spain’s working population, even though this country is one of the leading agricultural producers in Europe.
It is therefore not easy to find people to do jobs, like being a shepherd for instance, a job that has existed since biblical times, and which few Spaniards are willing to do today. Yet migrants, many from countries in Africa, but also from Venezuela and Afghanistan, may well have those skills or at least an understanding of the importance of core agricultural activity.
Under Spain’s government programme, training is available at a college facility outside Toledo. Here, over a five-day period, migrants can learn the fundamentals of shepherding, or slaughterhouse work or other agricultural areas, such as working with olive and other fruit farms. Then, after a day of on-site training, and with the correct authorisations, they are able to apply to be matched with a farm.
Since 2022, some 460 students, most of them migrants, have gone through this programme, which is funded by the regional government, Many of these students have been asylum-seekers.
Read the full article at APNews here.
Photo above: Spanish sheep in the Subbetica hills.