One in four self-employed workers is now foreign

23 August 2005

MADRID — One in four self-employed workers in Spain is foreign, according to new figures.

A quarter of all self-employed workers registered in the past six months are foreigners, said the National Self-Employed Federation (FNTA). 

Lorenzo Amor, president of the FNTA, said most set up businesses catering to their own communities, with restaurants, food shops, cheap telephone call booths, all of which created more work.

“In five years time, there will be 150,000 new companies set up by immigrants,” he added.

Amor said more foreign workers were registering themselves as self-employed to stabilise their work situation.

Many employers urged them to do this as it is a way to guarantee they can keep their work permit and stay in Spain.

By 2010, there will be 300,000 self-employed workers in Spain out of a predicted four million employees who work in this manner.

From January to July, there were 71,558 new registered self-employed workers. Of those, 18,146 were foreigners – or 25 percent.

According to figures released by the Spanish ministry of work, there was a total of 140,882 registered self-employed workers.

One proof of the number of foreign self-employed workers was the number who had visited a new website (www.autonomosinmigrantes.com) set up in May.

Sixty percent of foreign self-employed workers were found in three parts of Spain.  Catalonia had the highest number  with 26,243, then Valencia with 22,588 and Andalucía with 22,531.

More than half, or 53.5 percent, came from European Union countries.

Half of these came from Britain (21,177), then Germany (13,579), China (13,293), Morocco (10,970) and Italia (10,661).

[Copyright EFE with Expatica]

Subject: Spanish news