Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2011/07/20

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Subject: [Leica] Greece's woes now migration
From: photo at frozenlight.eu (Nathan Wajsman)
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 19:33:25 +0200
References: <CAH1UNJ27fkPMSPMH4f9xnJpCuaZnJTe7XafOJhUPyGkeDNycdA@mail.gmail.com> <777FBAFB-07C8-42CC-9A4D-0B9B981EB6D5@gmail.com> <4E26A366.7030204@gmx.de> <CAH1UNJ0_H35FgnQHLJggnFAuBCu+UXCwE0X2kDAn30tyjGbkYA@mail.gmail.com>

Yes, I have heard stories here about unemployed Spanish engineers and IT 
types taking courses in German in order to go to Germany for work. This is 
exactly how it should be. This is one of the fundamental ideas behind the 
EU--the free movement of labour--and it is good for all three parties 
concerned: 

- it is obviously good for the person since s/he will get a good job in a 
growing economy
- it is good for Germany because their labour shortage is alleviated
- and it is good for Spain, not so much because of remittances (I doubt 
there will be much of that) but simply because it is far better for the 
young engineer to be working abroad, learning new skills, languages etc, 
rather than languishing unemployed at home.

And when and if the situation improves here, they will come back and apply 
those skills here.

One difference between intra-EU migration and other types is that it is 
eminently reversible. A few years ago there were up to 1 million Poles 
working in the UK and Ireland, in all sorts of occupations ranging from 
professors to (mostly) construction workers. Now that those countries are in 
recession, while Poland is growing at positively Asian rates, many of those 
people have gone back to Poland where the opportunities are better right 
now. This is exactly the kind of flexibility that Europe needs and it is to 
be welcomed.

Cheers,
Nathan

Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://www.fotocycle.dk/blog

YNWA







On Jul 20, 2011, at 4:52 PM, Jayanand Govindaraj wrote:

> Douglas,
> It will help, as invisible flows, i.e.remittances back to the home
> economies, will go up considerably, nicely augmenting reserves. India lived
> on this tactic for decades - that is why you have doctors and engineers 
> from
> India all over, and the Middle East is full of our blue collar workers. 
> This
> is a form of export, after all, and not really too different from, say,
> tourism. Makes a lot of sense if you do not have jobs at home.
> Cheers
> Jayanand
> 
> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 3:14 PM, Douglas Sharp <douglas.sharp at gmx.de> 
> wrote:
> 
>> Germany has just started a campaign to get highly qualified people to 
>> leave
>> Greece, Spain, Ireland and Portugal to fill the gaps in a shortage of
>> engineers and graduates in German industry (which is booming as never
>> before).
>> 
>> I somehow don't think that creaming off the elite is the way to get those
>> countries back on track.
>> 
>> Funny thing though - most of the unemployed graduates in GR, ES, and P 
>> seem
>> to want to find jobs in the UK. Must be the language barrier.
>> 
>> Douglas
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> Leica Users Group.
>> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
>> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Leica Users Group.
> See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information
> 



Replies: Reply from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Greece's woes now migration)
In reply to: Message from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Luis and Steve)
Message from lluisripollquerol at gmail.com (Lluis Ripoll) ([Leica] Luis and Steve)
Message from douglas.sharp at gmx.de (Douglas Sharp) ([Leica] Greece's woes)
Message from jayanand at gmail.com (Jayanand Govindaraj) ([Leica] Greece's woes)