Jobless immigrants in Spain paid to go back homePLAN: FG's Leo Varadkar
Spain has agreed to pay jobless immigrants to return home in an attempt to cut social services spending, as its once-booming economy goes bust.
The plan targets 165,000 non-EU citizens who are entitled to unemployment benefit.
The proposal of a similar plan here, by Fine Gael's Leo Varadkar, sparked outrage recently.
Deputy Varadkar suggested that the Government look at giving a lump sum to immigrants who were out of work to entice them to go home.
Under the Spanish plan, people are to be given a lump sum of 40pc of the benefit once they renounce their work and residency permits, and the remainder once they get home. The programme is voluntary, and applies to people from 19 non-EU countries with which Spain has signed agreements, under which social security benefits accrued in one nation can be paid out in the other.
People who sign up for it must agree not to go back to Spain for three years, with the promise they can recover their work and residency permits after that.
This is the latest thrust by a government grappling with ever-swelling jobless ranks, in an economy that's posted more than a decade of solid growth but is now flirting with recession.
Spanish unemployment is now at an EU-high of 10.7pc.
The meltdown stems mainly from a collapse in the building industry -- the main engine of growth and a source of employment for low-skilled workers from Latin America, North Africa and eastern Europe.
These immigrants are taking a big hit as building companies lay off workers, and they are the ones the government now wants to pay to go home until things get better in Spain.
"We are trying to facilitate the return of those workers who, having contributed to the growth of this country, decide to go back to their own,'' Spain's deputy Prime Minister said.
The measure will take effect in about a month.
- Alan O'Keeffe
