That Spain Demonstration

Over the weekend, there was this massive demonstration in Barcelona, Spain.  The authorities say that roughly 160,000 folks showed up.  The topic?  They want to push the Spanish government to go ahead and accept 16,000 immigrants into Spain....which was the quota set up by the EU.  This quota (from 2015)  hasn't exactly been an easy thing for the government, and in the 18 months since it came out....there's been roughly one-thousand accepted.

The curious thing about this enthusiasm?  Well....Spain has one of the highest rates of unemployment in the EU....currently at 22-percent.

If you look at youth-unemployment.....it's roughly 42-percent.

If you look at the southern one-third of Spain....general unemployment is close to 30-to-35 percent (2016 numbers).

What happens when the 16,000 are accepted and pumped into Spain?  Well...after completing a Spanish language class....they would go to the unemployment office and talk with the counselor.  If they have no job background or craft....then Spain would have to put them through a one-to-two year program. The odds of a job after that?  I'd give it a 50-50 shot....mostly because you could hire the new immigrants at a fairly cheap price.

Adding migrants and immigrants in the midst of a 22-percent unemployment rate?  Stupid.  Fairly stupid. You only set up more revenue expenditures by the social welfare office and the state unemployment office.

It's hard to say who pumped up the agenda and got the 160,000 people to show up.  I doubt if any of them really sat and thought about the employment situation.  All this does in the end is create an atmosphere where people come into Spain....quickly drift into social welfare....live in the cheapest housing possible...and grumble day-by-day over a fairly negative social atmosphere.  Four to six years down the line....everyone wants to run off to Germany because they think the jobs are there.