Waking up to the lure of Latin America

In Spain, it seems like engineers waste their time doing stupid things. This is the opinion of a Latin American diplomat who has been living in Madrid for five years. "How many times are they going to remodel Plaza de Colón?" he said. "Why don't they do the statue of Columbus with his legs apart and put a tunnel under it?" In his country, he says, engineers are needed to "do serious things," such as housing, water mains, transportation infrastructure and electrical grids. That's the situation of an entire continent, which also happens to speak Spanish.

While Europe is struggling to keep its head above water in the crisis, Latin America is still waiting to be built... and now there's money to do it.

The equation seems simple. On the one hand, a whole generation of Spaniards with higher education and graduate degrees finds itself with few prospects for the future, and little to no chance of finding a stable, well-paying job. On the other, an entire continent that is laying the foundation for its future development needs skilled workers. Its schools are starting to crank out professionals, but not enough of them. Spain's economy is set to experience virtually zero growth this year, and the date of its forecasted economic turnaround keeps on getting pushed back. Meanwhile, Latin America is growing at an average rate of six percent a year.

From January 1, 2010 to January 1 of this year, the number of Spaniards living abroad increased by 128,655 people, according to the Register of Residents Abroad, published by the National Statistics Institute in late April. Sixty percent of them live in the Americas. The General Directorate for Spanish Citizens Abroad, a department of the Labor and Immigration Ministry, rushed to point out that many are people who have obtained Spanish citizenship due to the Historical Memory Law, which, among other acts aimed at restitution for victims of the Spanish Civil War, offered nationality to descendants of those forced into exile by the 1936-39 conflict. According to the ministry, Spaniards who have emigrated to Latin America in the last year only account for 10 percent of that figure.

But the phenomenon does exist. Nowadays, the average Spaniard who goes to Latin America to try his or her luck is around the age of 30, highly skilled and single. Many of them are expatriates who work for major multinationals, self-employed professionals and employees of medium-sized companies looking to go international, according to the General Directorate of Citizens Abroad.

Juan Arteaga fits this description exactly. At the age of 30, he has been living in Mexico City for the last five years. He studied journalism and tried to make his way in Santander, working for a university magazine. "But it's hard in Spain. You can easily end up working as a waiter instead of a journalist." And so, he decided to move to Mexico.

When he first got there, he shared a flat with some Spanish interns. He let people know that he was looking for a job, and found one at a Bilbao-based communication company with an office in Mexico City. Now he works for the consulting firm Llorente&Cuenca, specialized in social networks and online communication. "In Spain, people look at Latin America like a little boy who is growing up," says Arteaga. "But when you get here, you realize that there's nothing little about it. Mexico is a much more powerful market than Spain, due to its resources, oil, the size of the country, a population of 110 million... It's monstrous."

In spite of all that is being written about the moment of prosperity and stability taking place in Latin America, Spaniards continue to be surprised by it. "Many Spanish companies come here with the idea of opening up an office in Mexico as a launch pad to the United States. Then they realize that Mexico itself is a huge, thriving market," Arteaga continues.

Spanish banks realized this years ago. According to Javier López, president of CreditServices, a few months ago, the company moved a good portion of its business to Brazil following the financial shock. "In 2007 the banks said that they couldn't grow any more in Spain, so they were going to in Latin America," he said. "I went there to sell mortgages. Banks that only do business in Spain are going to have a very hard time," he says. López estimates that the Brazilian housing market is growing at an annual rate of 30 percent. "I'm handling financing in Latin America like I did in Spain five years ago."

Based on the experiences of emigrants in recent years, we can draw the conclusion that Latin America doesn't offer the same financial or physical security as Europe. There are barely any public social services and, depending on the country, the rules of business are not very clear. But the opportunity to grow professionally is better than anywhere else. In Germany you can find a job, but in an equally stagnant environment as in Spain. In Mexico or Colombia, on the other hand, you can really grow.

"The job market is totally different from Spain's. You work a lot and get less vacation. But you're rewarded for your effort. People who work well move up fast. I got here without a cent or any contacts, and five years later, I'm in charge of communication for Coca-Cola in the company's second-largest market in the world, at the age of 30... In Spain, I'd still be an intern," says Juan Arteaga of Llorente&Cuenca Mexico. Many people go to Mexico, he adds, "with the idea of staying two or three years, growing as much as they can in that period and returning to Spain with an executive position."

Arantza Hernández, also just 30, is the director of operations in Mexico for UR Global, a consulting firm based in the Spanish city of Vitoria. Its specialty is advising small and midsized companies looking to expand to Latin America, especially in Mexico and Brazil. "I used to have to almost beg companies to go international. Now it's the other way around; we've opened an office in Brazil because they pushed us to do it. They need people to go there."

Hernández went to Mexico six years ago as an intern with the Spanish Institute for Foreign Trade (ICEX) and ended up staying. "When you go abroad, especially to these markets, you can move up to a management position quickly. I've gone further in five years than I would have gone in 15 in Spain." She says that in the circles she travels in, it's normal for Spanish immigrants her age to set up their own business. "In Europe, even in the countries where things are run better than in Spain and where you can find a job, the market is already saturated."

This consultant had to open up an office in Brazil to meet the demand. "People fight over engineers there. And not just engineers, but lawyers, teachers... you name it," says Hernández. But her company is already planning to expand its horizons. "Colombia and Peru are next."

The Colombian Consulate in Madrid has seen an unprecedented rise in the number of applications for work visas. In 2008, they got an average of 45 a month. This year, they are processing at least 70, if you count all types of visas. One of them is a specific permit to make business contacts. Many of them go to Spaniards "fed up with the situation, who have some capital and want to go there to invest," according to the consul general, Lucy Osorno. She says that her country is "quite generous" about granting visas to Spaniards and that it "offers excellent investment and employment prospects," especially in infrastructure.

Eager to get Spaniards to invest, Colombia has made it easier for companies by lifting the requirement of having to hire a certain number of Colombian workers. Now a company can open an office in Colombia with a 100-percent Spanish staff.

Ángel Rivas, a 40-year-old telecommunications engineer, moved to Mexico City in January. The professional audio equipment company, Aspa Vimesa sent him there to set up an office for them, which he now runs. "This is an expanding economy, with major communications groups, which is at a very interesting moment technologically, since it's switching over from analogue to digital." In Europe, that switchover has already taken place, so "the business is limited to maintenance."

"In general, most people who come plan on staying temporarily," says Rivas. He just arrived with the idea of staying three or four years, and has already noticed major differences. "All of us who come here are surprised by the chances of having an idea and carrying it out. There are so many things to be done and so much enthusiasm, that it seems easier. In Spain, bureaucracy kills individual initiative."

Of all the agreements designed to make things easier for those looking to go to Latin America, the Labor Ministry points out the Iberoamerican Social Security Convention. According to this accord, workers can accumulate social security working in any country that has signed up (which most in the region have). What's more, when it's time to collect their pension, contributors can choose the most favorable figure. The convention is a blessing for Latin American immigrants in Spain, who can collect what they have contributed here if they want to retire in their country. But it's also an incentive for Spaniards to go work in Latin America.

Money, enthusiasm, Hispanic culture, the demand for Spaniards... Who wants to go to Germany when there's Latin America? There are several reasons, especially the distance and the lack of social coverage, which dissuades many workers from crossing the pond. "It's very far away, and certain news stories [about violence] don't help, either," says Arteaga. It's true that in Europe, most Spanish immigrants are at least four hours away from home by plane, while in Latin America, the shortest flight takes nine hours. "I talk to my family all the time over the internet," says Ángel Rivas, from Mexico. "It's a 12-hour flight, but this year I've already gone to Spain once. So far I'm handling it well." Rivas says that one of the main differences is that "social services" are guaranteed in Spain, and not in Latin America.

Pilar Pin, general director of immigration, points out the following problems: "Salaries, labor legislation, scant unemployment benefits and the healthcare system. [...] We're used to a universal system, and healthcare costs a fortune in America."

The data clearly indicate that there is not a huge wave of Spaniards leaving for Latin America. But when they do, you don't see boats full of famished-looking people carrying cardboard suitcases, but university graduates with a different - yet equally valid - mission: to gain experience. In the next decade, there is an entire continent to be constructed that speaks Spanish, and a generation of young, highly qualified Spaniards trapped in a struggling economy. These two situations are starting to find common ground.