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Refilling the "emptied Spain"

Anonymous

April 26, 2023

Refilling the "emptied Spain"

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The lack of job opportunities in rural areas of Spain has caused the migration of a large part of its population from rural areas to larger cities. This situation has caused what is known as the "emptied Spain", where a great part of Spanish small villages are being abandoned and only the elderly stay there. This reduction of population also carries the reduction of services offered in these areas (such as banks, supermarkets, education or health care) leaving the scarce number of people that still live there with even more reasons to migrate.

However, these small villages already have the infraestructure for larger numbers of people to live there, as most of them have a lot of houses that used to be inhabited but are now empty. A change I would like to see implemented in my home country is a better distribution of the Spanish population throughout the whole territory of the country, so that the congestion that bigger cities are experiencing now could also be solved and people that enjoy the benefits of living in rural areas could have the opportunity to make a life in there.

Politicians and other leaders should be the first ones to encourage this new migration tendency, as the current dinamics are deeply related to economic and job related issues, and opportunities should be created in rural areas. People that are currently online-working could also receive incentives to move to rural areas and establish in there. This way, the current "emptied Spain" could be refilled and the Spanish population would be more fairly distributed.

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