EL UNIVERSAL (Ecuador)
MADRID – For Ecuadorans hoping to escape poverty, Spain was long seen as a land of opportunity. Nowadays? Not so much. Due to the prolonged economic crisis in Spain, many Ecuadorans who took up residence there are ready to seek greener pastures — or simply return to their homeland (where 21% of the population still lives in poverty).
Ecuadorian daily El Universal dissected a Spanish government survey on immigration for the effects on its nationals who’d moved to the now troubled European country.
The number of Ecuadorans living in Spain dropped nearly 15% over the course of 2011, from 116,629 to 99,306. The bulk of Spain’s Ecuadoran population arrived before 2003, when authorities began requiring that citizens of Ecuador show tourist visas prior to touching Spanish soil, El Universal reported.
Of the 445 Ecuadorans included in the immigration survey, more than half said they hoped either to return to South America or migrate elsewhere – to Germany, England or France, for example. The poll also found that only 3.2% of married Ecuadorans have Spanish spouses. The vast majority – approximately 90% – are married to other Ecuadorans.
Read the original article in Spanish