Austerity Brain Drain

The Trader wrote (and warned) about the Spanish economic implosion while the mainstream media was focusing on the Greek drama last year. With the economic collapse, despite the recent IBEX rally, austerity is now hitting across the board. Many Spaniards see moving abroad as the only possible option out of the austerity misery. This is a dangerous path for a great country. More on the subject from El Pais.

Eskilstuna is an attractive town around 120 kilometers west of the Swedish capital of Stockholm, the headquarters of car maker Volvo, and the home of Abba singer Frida Lyngstad, the brunette. Soon it will be the home of pediatrician Jorge Sotoca and opthalmologist Mercedes López, a Spanish couple both aged 32. Next February they will begin working at Eskilstuna’s hospital, which has a catchment area of 400,000 people. They have already arranged nursery care for their one-year-old baby.

Their reasons for leaving Spain are simple: “Job insecurity, uncertainty and fear about where Spain is heading, few opportunities for career growth, and the chance to give our daughter a good start in life,” explains Sotoca.

Spain’s worsening economic crisis — coupled with deep spending cuts in health that mean working under temporary contracts with little hope of a permanent position in a hospital — is prompting growing numbers of young medics whose training has cost the country millions of euros to leave to work abroad.

Médica Colegial, the body that represents Spain’s medical associations, says that in the first six months of this year it issued around 1,350 copies of medical licenses required under European Union law for doctors and nurses who want to work outside their own country. Last year it issued 2,349 such copies, and 1,835 the previous year. These are just some of those leaving to work abroad; non-EU states do not require the certificate.

Full article here.