Booming Economy Does Not Cut Poverty, Spain's Case Indicates

from Playfuls

For Nancy, a 60-year-old Cuban immigrant in Spain, eating at a restaurant is a rare treat, because she only goes when invited by friends who pay for her.

"I buy clothes only when absolutely necessary at cheap Chinese-run shops, postpone visits to the doctor, and haven't had the money to visit Cuba for years," she explains.

Earning slightly over 500 euros (647 dollars) a month for taking care of an old lady in the southern city of Jerez de la Frontera, Nancy can only pay her rent with the help of her daughter, who shares her small flat and earns little more than she does.

To someone living in a developing country, Nancy would not look poor, yet she forms part of the one-fifth of Spain's 45-million population whose economically precarious lives qualify them as poor.

Despite 14 years of continuous economic growth, the percentage of the poor has remained the same, and looks unlikely to go down.

"There are no signs of change for the time being," says Victor Renes, a researcher with the Catholic organization Caritas which assists the poor.

The growth has partly been based on factors such as the deregulation of the labour market, which creates temporary or unqualified jobs, Renes told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

The Spanish economy has been one of the fastest-growing in the European Union (EU) in recent years, and is expected to maintain a growth rate of more than 3 per cent until 2009.

Unemployment is likely to drop this year to 7.8 per cent, which would be the lowest level since 1979, according to Economics Minister Pedro Solbes.

Yet at the same time, nearly 20 per cent of the population lives below the official poverty line which EU and other international criteria set at a monthly net income of 530 euros for Spain.

Spain has one of western Europe's highest poverty rates, together with Portugal and Greece.

"Poverty is not being able to participate in society, never being able to go to the movies or to buy a home," economics professor Luis Ayala said.

Forty per cent of Spanish families cannot afford a week of holidays outside the home annually, according to a study by the National Statistics Institute (INE).

Economic growth has mainly boosted company profits, while salaries have declined in real terms, according to the daily El Pais.

Traditional families which helped their less fortunate members have also broken down since the 1970s.

At the same time, Spain has received hundreds of thousands of immigrants from Latin America, Africa and eastern Europe, who have less chances than Spaniards of accessing stable employment.

Poverty is aggravated by a relatively weak social security system and the existence of a large underground economy which does not offer social protection to its employees.

An estimated 100,000 families live in slum-like conditions in Spain, and some 50,000 people live on the street.

In the capital Madrid, beggars give long speeches about their problems on underground trains, elderly widows clad in black beg at restaurant entrances, and young men try to sell packets of paper handkerchiefs on the street.

The typical poor person is no longer just an elderly person - often a widowed housewife without an adequate pension - or a homeless alcoholic.

Nearly half of homeless people are now foreigners, according to the INE. Thirteen per cent of the homeless have higher-level studies and 11 per cent have a job.

People whose appearance does not reveal them as being poor queue in front of charity eateries where they can get a free meal in Madrid.

"This can happen to anyone," a homeless man named Lorenzo Arguelles Silva said.

By Sinikka Tarvainen, Dpa