A Spaniard in London

A Spanish graduate who won three degrees has found the only job available to him is cleaning the bathrooms in a London cafe. Benjamin Serra Bosch, 25, received distinctions for his academic work in journalism and PR but has not be able to find qualified work in Spain or his new home country.

In a frustrated online rant, he outlines the hopeless situation for thousands of young Spaniards like himself who are forced to go abroad to take on jobs for which they are overqualified.

He has two Bachelor degrees, one in Journalism and Advertising and another in Public Relations from the prestigious private CEU Cardenal Herrera University.  He also has a Master's degree in Community Management from the IEBS Business School.  Yet he was not able to find employment in Spain, and after a six-month internship in London, he took a job at a ‘well-known coffee chain’ as a waiter.

‘I received a distinction for both my degrees and now I clean shit in a foreign country,’ he writes.

‘I've been working in a well known café chain in London since May. And after five months working there, today for the first time I saw it clearly.

‘I clean toilets. My thought was “I received distinctions in my two degrees and I clean other peoples shit in a country that isn't my own.” Well, I also make coffees, wipe tables and wash up cups.’

 

The reaction from other young Spaniards, did not take long. Since Friday, his post has been shared over 1,500 times on Facebook alone, with thousands of comments from others in his situation.

Thousands have complained of the hopeless situation for many young people in Spain, where unemployment for under-25s reached 56 per cent in August.

The Valencia native insists in his post that he is not ashamed of working a job he is overqualified for, but rather that, like many others of his generation, he was forced to go abroad to get it as a result of the high unemployment in Spain.

‘I'm not ashamed of what I do. Cleaning is a very worthy job, What embarrasses me is having to do it because no one has given me an opportunity in Spain. There are many Spaniards like me especially in London.

‘I thought I deserved better after so much effort in my academic life. Apparently I was wrong.’

'I know this has transpired because many of us [young Spaniards] find ourselves in the same situation or are parents who have struggled to prepare their children and identify with my situation. Or simply because there are people who see that Spain has spent years living in an untenable position. 

'I am an ordinary person, not a public figure. I never wanted to be the hero of the stories, I just want to tell them.'

All words from The Daily Mail online in the UK

Discussion:

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