A generation that has grown up between two economic crises, moreover, in the midst of training and entering the world of work. The ‘Millennials’ continue to navigate against the current in an increasingly hostile environment, where achievements that were normal in previous generations, such as job stability or access to housing, seem increasingly complicated. It is told by young people like Paola, a publicist by training, who years ago was forced to oppose the Post Office in search of better working conditions: “I have the feeling of living in a permanent crisis.”
When the financial crisis began to shake the economy in early 2008, José Liñares was in his second year of college. He was studying in Pontevedra, where he had his flat and his group of friends.
He decided to return to his native Santiago de Compostela the following year, where he returned to live with his parents to save costs. “In 2012 curricula were being torn up due to the excessive demand for nurses,” says Liñares.
With the pandemic, his work situation remained stable thanks to his salary as a nurse, but the stress and misinformation that marked the first months of living with the coronavirus pushed him to make an important decision: “The situation dragged me out of nursing” . He currently lives with his wife, Raquel, and they both recognize the importance of the unconditional support of their families, a pillar of security that has always accompanied them.
Paola Rodríguez (35 years old) lives near Zaragoza with her partner and son. When asked if the current rise in prices is having an impact on her, she cites as an anecdote that “I have never looked at the gas bill in my life and, now, we are looking for savings all the time.” They have also changed their electric company. “It gives me the feeling of living in a permanent crisis,” acknowledges this publicist by training who currently works at the Post Office. Like many millennials, her baptism in the world of work could not have come at a worse time: the 2008 crisis. “I experienced it like a slide into precariousness,” she summarizes with humor. She received four unpaid scholarships in the 18 months after her return from her Erasmus in Rome, until one day she got fed up and started working as a waitress. “I spent a year and a half earning 1,500 euros a month and I was happy”, she recalls of a time when she “still had dreams of working in advertising, she still believed in meritocracy”. In 2019 she became a mother and she decided to oppose Correos in search of better conditions.
Miguel Rodríguez is from Leganés (Madrid) and is 27 years old. This young man works in a fast food company with a permanent contract, although he works night shifts. “It’s a job designed for young people who are studying, there are few hours and the salary is low,” he points out. What, he acknowledges, has not helped him become independent-he lives with his parents-because, in his opinion, “housing is through the roof in Leganés: Either you go with a partner or you share”. Miguel shares with other ‘millennials’ the feeling that “the promise of meritocracy has not been fulfilled” and recalls that “they asked us to study and I have trained.” In this sense, he believes that his generation will live worse than his parents’.
Miguel Rodríguez is from Leganés (Madrid) and is 27 years old. This young man works in a fast food company with a permanent contract, although he works night shifts. “It’s a job designed for young people who are studying, there are few hours and the salary is low,” he points out. What, he acknowledges, has not helped him become independent-he lives with his parents-because, in his opinion, “housing is through the roof in Leganés: Either you go with a partner or you share”. Miguel shares with other ‘millennials’ the feeling that “the promise of meritocracy has not been fulfilled” and recalls that “they asked us to study and I have trained.” In this sense, he believes that his generation will live worse than his parents’.
11 years ago, Fernando Maquedano (Madrid, 38 years old) undertook a trip to Australia, a country where he lived until last February, working for companies such as the BHP Billiton mining company. The strict confinement of the country made him rethink things: «As Australian I couldn’t leave the country for two years”, remembers Fernando who speaks of astonishment at the sharp rise in prices and, as an example, cites the 3 euros he was charged for a beer in Barcelona. Now he is looking for a job: “I do not rule out going back to study or moving to another European country.” In any case, he acknowledges that “this is the question I’ve been asking myself for months: Has it been worth going back to Spain?”
The generation that was formed during the years of recession after the financial crisis is once again facing an adverse scenario. «From our homes they instilled in us that with a career we would get a good job and a good salary. Over time, we find ourselves with poorly paid jobs and poor conditions, as if everything were a hoax,” says Beatriz Vilar, a 28-year-old woman from Santiago. After specializing as a general health psychologist, Vilar opted, like other colleagues, to become self-employed to work as a collaborator in several clinics in parallel. A solution to the lack of public places for psychologists. “The fact of being able to live alone and become independent is quite an achievement,” says the psychologist.
