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www.theolivepress.es Voted top expat paper in Spain
A campaigning, community newspaper, the Olive Press represents the huge expatriate community in Spain with an estimated readership, including the websites, of more than two million people a month.
OPINION Legal limbo AS if it wasn’t hard enough for Brits to navigate their way through Spain’s bureaucratic requirements – and during a global pandemic to boot – we are hearing of more and more hurdles placed in their way. Hundreds, if not thousands, of Brits living in Spain have yet to get their residency papers in order. Some of these people just didn’t heed the multiple warnings issued by Spanish and British Embassy authorities – and reported repeatedly by the Olive Press - to register in plenty of time before the Brexit deadline hit. Many of those who left it until the last minute were thwarted by the lockdown as they found themselves banned from travelling between the UK and Spain when the pandemic hit. Others were unable to secure appointments at the relevant offices because they were closed under COVID-19 restrictions or because the backlog of applications made appointments impossible to get. So it is understandable that there are those who sought the help of experts to ease the process, often paying gestors over the odds to get the job done. Which is why it is particularly galling for them to now find themselves in a legal limbo, because unbeknownst to them, allegedly fraudulent applications were lodged on their behalf. The Olive Press has spoken to at least a dozen people who now face months of uncertainty while they wait for the slow cogs of Spain’s judicial system to turn and determine their fate. In the meantime, they are unable to travel abroad, unable to make plans for the future, unsure whether they will or will not be granted residency in Spain. These people need answers. Rest assured, the team at the Olive Press will be working hard to get them. Publisher / Editor
Jon Clarke, jon@theolivepress.es Dilip Kuner dilip@theolivepress.es
Fiona Govan fiona@theolivepress.es
Kirsty McKenzie kirsty@theolivepress.es
Alex Trelinski alex@theolivepress.es
Isha Sesay isha@theolivepress.es
James Warren james@theolivepress.es
Simon Wade simon@theolivepress.es
Glenn Wickman glenn@theolivepress.es
Graham Keeley Cristina Hodgson graham@theolivepress.es cristina@theolivepress.es
Office manager Héctor Santaella (+34) 658 750 424 accounts@ theolivepress.es
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o t e m o c l We NEWS FEATURE
How the Costa del Sol’s glitziest resort became a global HQ of organised crime, writes Fiona Govan
M
ARBELLA has been fingered as the ‘global capital of organised crime’. At least 113 gangs of 59 different nationalities have sent the crime rate in the celebrity holiday hangout spiralling out of control, according to a
DEADLY: Gangster executed
Mob-ella damning report. And the most dangerous of them all are the British. “The Costa del Sol is a kind of hub, a sort of coworking centre where almost all organised criminal groups in the world have a presence,” a senior member of Spain’s Policia Nacional told national newspaper El Pais in an in-depth report. Describing Marbella as a ‘UN of gangsters in a globalised world,’ the police chief said the Ritzy resort has become synonymous not only with tourism but also with crime. A network of gangs bring in drugs from South America and Africa via the Strait of Gibraltar, for distribution across Europe, he explained. A collaboration of powerful mafia structures and
crime rings involved in house burglaries or armed robberies, each provides different elements in the complex supply chain: such as distribution, protection and money laundering. But, he added, alliances are quick to change and break down, leading to inevitable rivalries, turf wars and revenge violence. “Whoever thinks that criminal organisations are like before, pyramidal and with all the sections covered, is wrong,” a public prosecutor told the newspaper. “They are not cartels, they provide services: we have reached the Uberisation of organised crime.” Each group has an area of expertise, he continued: from the French who bring in hashish from Morocco to the Irish clans controlling cocaine and weapons imports. An enduring feud between two rival Irish cartels – Kinahan and Hutch – is already thought to have led to 20 executions. There are also rival gangs from Serbia and other Balkan countries, as well
Expat in Spain or immigrant: Is there a difference? The term ‘expat’ is loaded. It’s time we moved on, argues Carrie Frais
I
N a quick Google search asking the question: ‘What is the difference between an expat and an immigrant?’ Google tells us that ‘..it usually comes down to socio-economic factors, so skilled professionals working in another country are described as expatriates, whereas a manual labourer who has moved to another country to earn more money might be labelled an immigrant'. The Oxford English Dictionary tells us that an immigrant is ‘a person who comes to live permanently in a foreign country'. The original expatriate, around the 19thCentury, tended to be a middle-class, usually white, who moved abroad on a corporate assignment and (generally) chose not to integrate into their local community. If a better economic opportunity came up they would probably move again. Two centuries on, we have moved way beyond that, however. Today’s expats are from diverse backgrounds, from all over the world with different skin colours, and the vast majority of them have a desire to integrate and live in their adopted country for extended periods of time, or indeed permanently. If we adhered to the OED definition then
this demographic should in fact be ter- cioeconomic realities - but maybe that med immigrants, right? should not matter? But it is not just a question of definition. It There are other terms to describe those is also about connotation. who have chosen to move to another The term ‘expat’ carries with it a myriad country through choice, such as ‘memof preconceptions about class, educa- bers of the international community’, tion, privilege and entitlement - just as ‘global citizens’ and ‘global nomads’. the terms immigrant, migrant and to a Some neologisms of the term ‘expat’ certain extent ‘foreign worker’ have a di- have also been put forward such as ‘disfferent set of assumptions. patriate’: an expat who distances themselves from their nation of When used as a noun, the origin; a ‘flexpatriate’: soword ‘expatriation’ can also meone who often travels mean the act of someone renouncing allegiance to The term ‘expat’ internationally; ‘inpatriate’: an employee sent from their native country, which is carries with a foreign subsidiary to not the case for most peoit a myriad of ple. work in the country where Some people also believe preconceptions a company has a presence that being labelled an exand ‘rex-pat’: a repeat exabout class pat sets them apart from pat, someone who chooses their adopted cultures when to return to a foreign country after completing a work in fact they are trying to do assignment. exactly the opposite. The majority of those who today are la- As our travel behaviours change, our belled ‘expats’ have chosen to live away working habits become more fluid and from their country of their birth as a li- the world becomes more globalised, it festyle choice, rather than due to political is becoming increasingly clear that the oppression or economic necessity. term ‘expat’ has probably run its course, So, calling everyone an ‘immigrant’ a sentiment echoed by many living away would not differentiate between so- from their native home.
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AWARDS
2016 - 2020 Best expat paper in Spain and the second best in the world. The Expat Survey Consumer Awards.
2012 - 2021
Named the best English language publication in Andalucia by the Rough Guides group.
WHAT’S IN A NAME?: Are Spaniards in the UK ‘immigrants’ but Brits in Spain ‘expats’?
