Zhejiang's Wanderlust

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Suzanne Ma, For Spain, an Economic Lifeline from China. With another recession looming, immigrants are shoring up growth. Bloomberg BusinessWeek, Feb 27, 2012 (cover date)
http://www.businessweek.com/maga ... +-+global+economics

Quote:

"With an unemployment rate of 22.8 percent, the euro zone’s highest, Spain appears to be spiraling back into recession. Yet the Cobo Calleja industrial park 15 miles south of central Madrid shows few signs of economic distress. * * * 'I can’t think of one Chinese person who is unemployed,' Jin Jing says as she surveys the commotion outside her warehouse crammed with women’s clothing. 'There are jobs to be found in this crisis if you are willing to work. The Chinese are clearly willing to work.'

"Virtually all of the shopkeepers and wholesalers in the park are Chinese. Only 2.9 percent of Chinese registered for social security received unemployment benefits in 2010, vs. 16.5 percent of Spanish nationals and 24.5 percent of all foreigners, government data show. And though they account for less than 3 percent of Spain’s 5.7 million immigrants, Chinese make up nearly 23 percent of the country’s foreign-born entrepreneurs, labor ministry data show.

"Few Chinese accepted the offer, and government statistics show there are now 165,000 Chinese in Spain (though many academics believe the real number may be more than double that). Nearly 18,000 new Chinese immigrants arrived in Spain in the three years ended December 2010, and most seem to have found work with little problem. From 2007 until the end of 2011, legal Chinese workers increased 41 percent, while employed Moroccans and Ecuadoreans—the largest non-European immigrant groups—fell 23 percent and 52 percent, respectively, according to the labor ministry.

"A primary strength of the Chinese community in Spain is its cohesion. Though no official figures exist, many Chinese in the country say a strong majority of their ranks come from one place: Qingtian County, about 300 miles south of Shanghai. That mountainous corner of Zhejiang province has little arable land, so for the last 200 years many of its people have emigrated.

Note: Qingtian County 浙江省丽水市 青田县