The people from the plains of Andalusia almost forgot how to worry.
The country’s economic boom transformed Jodar, population 12,600, less than a decade ago. Men suddenly could find good-paying construction jobs just a drive away. Women were able to stay home with their children. The hard seasons of grape and tomato harvests — the toil that generations knew — seemed long gone.
Until the economy withered this year.
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Job losses have climbed, and Jodar has noticeably changed. A temporary nursery the city sets up every autumn to help field workers now has more than 30 children, one-third of whom sleep there overnight.
Some parents have headed to France, where wages are higher, to pick grapes.
Jodar’s bars fill just after lunch. Unemployment has hit 50 percent, and men turn up for uneasy chats about work and who among them can earn a living.
“We’re in the same place we were 10 years ago. The good times are over, and it could get much worse,” said Juan Montavez, 47, who hasn’t worked in construction for three months.
Money is so tight that his family has done the unthinkable: His wife, son and daughter are working the field, picking grapes.
The men of Jodar are aware that the government is hard-pressed to create jobs, and that immigrants are first to be second-guessed about their place in Spain’s economy. But none spoke in favor of the government’s offer of lump-sum unemployment benefits to push foreigners back to their country of origin.
“I heard that the government is trying to push out immigrants. But that won’t work,” Montavez said. “And anyhow, I’m not against immigrants. How could I be? Spanish have been immigrant laborers — in other places — for years.”
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4,526,522
Number of immigrants in Spain
TOP FIVE PLACES OF ORIGIN:
539,773
Morocco
530,786
Romania and Bulgaria
371,734
Ecuador
299,479
Colombia
269,470
United Kingdom
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SOURCE: NATIONAL IMMIGRATION CENSUS 2007, SPAIN NATIONAL STATISTICS INSTITUTE
NOTE: OFFICIAL FIGURES EXCLUDE CHILDREN YOUNGER THAN 16 AND IMMIGRANTS WHO HAVE BEEN IN SPAIN LESS THAN A YEAR.