Expat life in the Balearics beats the pain in the rest of Spain

[Editor]

Whilst the ‘party’ may be over in some parts of Spain with dipping house prices, a rise in the cost of living and an unfavourable exchange rate forcing many expat Brits to return to the UK, in the Balearics the British population is growing, the latest data shows. According to latest figures from the National [...]

Click to read the full news article: Expat life in the Balearics beats the pain in the rest of Spain...
Please come back to discuss the story here in this thread.

[mrypg9]

According to latest figures from the National Statistics Institute, the number of British residents in the Balearics has risen in the past year bringing the official total to 23,773 people.

The average age of a British expat in the region is now 46.6 years old. But the biggest expat group is still the Germans with a total population of 36,727 and an average age of 48.

As the total number of Balearic residents is 1,118,654, expats now make up 21.6% or one in five, the highest in Spain.


That's an extract from the piece which confirms me in the wisdom of our choice of mainland Spain as our home. I don't really want to live in a part of Spain where immigrants from Northern Europe make up over 20% of the population. If I wanted to live in that kind of area I would have stayed in the UK as Polish and other Eastern European migrant workers made up more than 20% of the local population where I lived.

Some twentyfive to thirty years ago we used to spend six to seven weeks each summer in a finca in Ibiza belonging to a friend. At that time Ibiza was almost unknown, was very quiet but colourful and was home to a host of interesting and often eccentric Northern European immigrants. Signs of what would happen to this lovely little island were already appearing by the mid-eighties. Quiet towns and villages became venues for raucous drug-fuelled nightlife which shocked the locals and drove out many longstanding residents.

We looked elsewhere for our peaceful summer vacations - Mallorca seemed to have gone the same way as Ibiza.

It's all a matter of choice and taste. For some people, a heavily immigrant populated area is just what they are looking for when they retire abroad. I prefer my 'abroad' to be just that: different.
If I'd wanted Great Yarmouth on heat, I'd have retired there and bought a sun bed.
Others would disagree.
Sobre los gustos no hay disputos.

[BGD]

I have to agree - others are of course free not to.

We moved to Spain to live in Spain, integrating as far as we can into Spanish lifestyle, culture, language and community; not in order to live in a "ghetto" estate of almost all Brit/Norther European ex-pats........so we deliberately chose to move to an inland, very largely Spanish, village.
Been here over 9 years now and absolutely love it!

[Hepa]

I came here because I liked the island, at that time there were 17 English, now there are we believe five.

It was purely the location that attracted us here, I was not concerned about the English population, large or small.

[jojo]

Originally Posted by BGD

I have to agree - others are of course free not to.

We moved to Spain to live in Spain, integrating as far as we can into Spanish lifestyle, culture, language and community; not in order to live in a "ghetto" estate of almost all Brit/Norther European ex-pats........so we deliberately chose to move to an inland, very largely Spanish, village.
Been here over 9 years now and absolutely love it!

You have to remember tho that the spanish lifestyle, culture etc has been diluted, not by expats, but by the fact we're now in Europe. Those pretty little villages and that "riding thru lemon groves on a donkey" lifestyle dont appeal to the Spanish particularly anymore - they want mod cons, dishwashers, modern housing, plasma tvs, fast cars, pop music, fashion, iphones, hi tech, highly paid jobs........

Jo xxxx

[Alcalaina]

Originally Posted by jojo

You have to remember tho that the spanish lifestyle, culture etc has been diluted, not by expats, but by the fact we're now in Europe. Those pretty little villages and that "riding thru lemon groves on a donkey" lifestyle dont appeal to the Spanish particularly anymore - they want mod cons, dishwashers, modern housing, plasma tvs, fast cars, pop music, fashion, iphones, hi tech, highly paid jobs........

Jo xxxx

You keep saying that, and of course it applies to some Spaniards. But in my village (and others like it), people are incredibly proud of the pueblo, its local food, its landmarks and its traditions. Even alcalainos who moved away years ago still feel a strong tie to the place and come back for all the fiestas and festivals. There are endless Facebook pages, blogs and YouTube videos about it. It's got nothing to do with commercialism or tourism, they just have a deep-rooted attachment to their birthplace. Just because they use iphones doesn't diminish this.

Here they are celebrating our famous gazpacho caliente:

Sevillanas del Gazpacho - YouTube

[mrypg9]

Originally Posted by Alcalaina

You keep saying that, and of course it applies to some Spaniards. But in my village (and others like it), people are incredibly proud of the pueblo, its local food, its landmarks and its traditions. Even alcalainos who moved away years ago still feel a strong tie to the place and come back for all the fiestas and festivals. There are endless Facebook pages, blogs and YouTube videos about it. It's got nothing to do with commercialism or tourism, they just have a deep-rooted attachment to their birthplace. Just because they use iphones doesn't diminish this.

Here they are celebrating our famous gazpacho caliente:

Sevillanas del Gazpacho - YouTube

I think what you say is true and it's also true of our village, as shown by its Romeria and other ferias.
But Jo is also right. Alcala today is not the Alcala of even ten years ago - nowhere is - and I'll venture to say few locals would want to turn the clock back.
IPhones, satellite tv, international trade have changed the tiniest most remote village and outside influences have changed the way people think about themselves and their lives.
This attachment to a place isn't premised on it not changing, though. It's a normal human attachment to the local, the familiar. It exists almost tribally in parts of our big cities....rivalry almost between North and South Londoners, for example.
This strength of attachment to a particular locality is common to most of humanity and is imo one reason why 'internationalism' is such an empty concept.
I have a very strong attachment to the county of my birth and upbringing, Dorset, although the village where I was born and brought up has changed beyond all recognition and I haven't lived there for donkey's years.
It's as normal as change is inevitable. Our loyalties are to family, relatives and locality, not exclusively but irrevocably.

[baldilocks]

Originally Posted by Editor

Whilst the ‘party’ may be over in some parts of Spain with dipping house prices, a rise in the cost of living and an unfavourable exchange rate forcing many expat Brits to return to the UK, in the Balearics the British population is growing, the latest data shows. According to latest figures from the National [...]

Click to read the full news article: Expat life in the Balearics beats the pain in the rest of Spain...
Please come back to discuss the story here in this thread.

Where do you get the unfavourable exchange rate from? - it is currently over €1.23/GBP, the best it has been for ages.

This sounds like the story of over 1million UK Expats are heading home - just an advertorial for a Money company - this one is for Sothebys. Mostly rubbish as usual. The only ones who are heading out are those who should never have come in the first place - no job, no income, open a bar somewhere or prop one up.

[Alcalaina]

Originally Posted by mrypg9

I think what you say is true and it's also true of our village, as shown by its Romeria and other ferias.
But Jo is also right. Alcala today is not the Alcala of even ten years ago - nowhere is - and I'll venture to say few locals would want to turn the clock back.
IPhones, satellite tv, international trade have changed the tiniest most remote village and outside influences have changed the way people think about themselves and their lives.
This attachment to a place isn't premised on it not changing, though. It's a normal human attachment to the local, the familiar. It exists almost tribally in parts of our big cities....rivalry almost between North and South Londoners, for example.
This strength of attachment to a particular locality is common to most of humanity and is imo one reason why 'internationalism' is such an empty concept.
I have a very strong attachment to the county of my birth and upbringing, Dorset, although the village where I was born and brought up has changed beyond all recognition and I haven't lived there for donkey's years.
It's as normal as change is inevitable. Our loyalties are to family, relatives and locality, not exclusively but irrevocably.

I wasn't implying that things weren't changing in the pueblos, just that you will still find a sense of community which I doubt exists in recently-built coastal developments. The arrival of modern appliances makes people's lives easier, it doesn't necessarily "dilute" their culture. Most people here can't afford them anyway.

[Pesky Wesky]

A lot of the Spaniards I know have, as Alcalaina has said, a very strong attachment to their hometowns, mostly referred to as "El pueblo" as in Where did you go this weekend?
El pueblo
Where to you usually go in the summer?
El Pueblo
But it is changing as holidays abroad become more accessible, more people move away from their hometown etc Or at least it was changing, now I'm not so sure...
For my part, in my husbands family where there are 15 people (brothers, sisters and cousins) in the same age bracket more or less and he is the only one who has left the area completely. The other still live in Bilbao or not more than 40 mins away.