Almost everyone who arrives in Spain passes the first three months in the same way. Ten or twelve numbers collect in the phone, every acquaintance says “there is plenty of work, you just have to look for it”, and the man walks about all day and comes back to his room empty-handed in the evening. Then one day somebody says that such and such a place needs men, and the work is found — low pay, long hours, no papers.
This cycle breaks with two things: language and information. Everything else comes after that.
The first reality: the language is the biggest step
English does not carry you through in Spain. It takes people months to accept this, and those months are costly. The sooner Spanish comes, the sooner you will get out of the level where the only work left for you is work in which there is no need to speak. And this applies equally to the degree holder and to the manual worker — perhaps more to the degree holder, because without the language all his qualification lies useless on paper.
The good news is that it costs nothing. Municipalities, Cruz Roja (the Red Cross) and several local organisations run free classes. Putting one hour a day into the language is the most profitable investment in Spain, and the only one on which nobody asks you for a commission.
Where, after all, should the job be looked for
The biggest online door is InfoJobs; run Indeed alongside it. For small odd jobs look at Milanuncios, and for restaurant or shop work Jobtoday, which is made for exactly that purpose. The real field for office and professional jobs is LinkedIn — if your education is of that kind, make the profile in Spanish, not in English.
The government body SEPE and your region’s employment office do not only give a list of jobs; after registration you also get access to free training courses. Many people live in Spain for years and never go to that office, and those same people are later paying a private institute to learn a skill.
The quickest door is usually the ETT, that is the temporary work agencies — Randstad, Adecco, Manpower and ones like them. Factory, warehouse and seasonal work mostly comes out from here. Keep one thing in mind: registration with them is free. An agency that asks for a registration fee is not an agency, it is a racket.
Then there is the community. The truth is that most newcomers get their first work through acquaintance, and to deny this would be foolish. But it is equally true that exploitation also happens inside the community, and the man who is cheated by one of his own cannot even complain. Before starting work, get the pay and the hours said out loud — asking this question among relatives should not be treated as rude.
Seasonal work is, in its own place, a real opportunity: the strawberries of Huelva, the fruit of Lleida, the olives of Jaén. In the season months men really are needed there. Before going, ask only one thing — where is the accommodation and in what condition. There is no benefit in asking this question afterwards.
If you are educated, do not let the degree go to waste
In regulated professions such as doctors, engineers and teachers, a foreign degree is a piece of paper until it has been officially recognised — Homologación. This process is slow, sometimes very slow. That is why you should start it as soon as you arrive and keep the rest of your life running without waiting for it to finish.
IT and the digital sector are the exception to this. In Barcelona and Madrid there are tech companies where the working language is English — this is almost the only sector where you can begin even before learning Spanish.
And one thing to those who pass the first year outside their own field. Working in a restaurant or doing shifts in a warehouse is no shame; it gives you food and rent. The shame is that a man gets tired and sits down and the work on the language and on the recognition stops. The people who come back into their own field are the ones who kept these two things going even in the hard year.
When a contract comes into your hand, what to look at
There is no room for feelings here, only for checking. Before starting work, look at these four things:
- The contract should be in writing, and the pay, hours, duration and type of work should be clearly written in it. What is settled by mouth is remembered by nobody afterwards.
- Alta en la Seguridad Social — this is the real thing, that is, the employer has registered you with social security. And do not accept this on anybody’s word: get the vida laboral report yourself and see whether you are registered or not.
- A contract below the minimum wage (SMI) is illegal — even if you agree to it yourself. Your consent does not change the law.
- The pay slip (nómina) should come every month. Do not throw these slips away; at the time of applying for papers and of renewal these are your strongest document.
Those who do not have papers yet — here the truth must be spoken
Under the law it is not permitted to work without a work permit, and we will not say that it is. But it is also a fact that many people are doing this out of compulsion, and what they need most is to know which of their rights do not depend on papers.
The most important thing is that a worker’s rights are not conditional on papers. Making somebody work and not paying the wage is a crime in Spain too, and the courts hear a wage claim from a worker without papers. Read this sentence again, because the whole of the exploitation stands on this one point. The employer who eats up your labour eats it on the assumption that you do not know this.
And about the employer who threatens, “if you complain I will have you picked up” — know this, that for victims of serious exploitation or of human trafficking who cooperate, the law provides routes even to protection and residence. Do not fight alone: talk to an NGO or a union. CCOO and UGT both have separate help desks for migrants, the advice is free, and they do not sit down to demand an account of your papers.
Keep collecting proof alongside — the employer’s messages, the shift timings, photographs of the workplace, anything that carries a date. Today it looks useless; tomorrow it is what serves in a wage claim or in an Arraigo Sociolaboral application.
And always keep your eye on the goal of reaching a legal contract as soon as possible. In Spain the Arraigo route opens after two years of continuous residence, and an employer who gives you a real contract of twenty hours a week opens that door for you. The details are in our article on Arraigo, and reading it will be the most useful thing on this one page.
The matter of the delivery apps
Renting somebody else’s account and running it on apps like Glovo has become common in our communities, and it is often described as if it were some sensible arrangement. Let us settle the accounts. The owner of the account takes a large share of your earnings. If there is an accident on the road, the insurance is not in your name — that is, on the day you need it most, you do not exist on paper. And if you are caught the account is closed, after which you have neither the work nor the money you paid in rent.
We understand a temporary compulsion. Just do not make it the destination.
The CV — a small job, but do it properly
In Spain the CV is one page and it is in Spanish. The municipality’s employment office and many NGOs make it for free, so there is no need to spend money on it. It should clearly state the phone number, the city and the work you really know how to do. Writing “I can do any kind of work” has never brought anybody a call; writing “two years of welding, driving licence held” does.
And the last point, which is the shortest and the most necessary: any job found on WhatsApp in which money is asked for in advance is a hundred per cent fraud. There is no exception to this. The one who gives the job gives you money; he does not take it from you.
Keep these links safe
- Government employment service: sepe.es
- Social security and the vida laboral report: seg-social.es
- The union CCOO’s services relating to migrants: ccoo.es
- The union UGT: ugt.es
This piece is for general guidance and should not be taken as legal advice. In matters of wages, contracts and papers the details of every case are different — show your own matter to your city’s union, to an NGO or to a lawyer, and verify the conditions from the official website.
