At 23, Isabella is a perfect urbanite. This young journalism student in Madrid would never have thought of doing a three-month internship last summer in a small town in Extremadura, within a cultural association. «The experience allowed me to get out of my comfort zone and, let’s be frank, the remuneration, €1,000 per month, is a strong point in a country where internships are not paid”, she explains.
By participating in the Rural Campus program, set up in 2022 by the Ministry of Ecological Transition and the Demographic Challenge, Isabella acknowledges having “open-minded” when she was used to the idea of working in Madrid or Barcelona.
Reconnecting young people with rural Spain
Last year, 399 students benefited from these scholarships by voluntarily choosing a summer internship in towns or villages with less than 5,000 inhabitants among the offers offered by Spanish universities. Objective: to reconnect young people with this rural, depopulated Spain.
«We have to invest because we are all piling up in the city while food depends on the rural world. If we lose it, it won’t be viable,” says Violeta, 24, an architecture and design student in Madrid. After an internship in a small architecture firm near Valladolid to rehabilitate houses, she wonders if she would accept a position in another small town: “I was able to appreciate the quality of life in rural areas, but there are also obstacles. »
Beyond the sometimes magnificent landscapes, life in the countryside can pose mobility difficulties. Without a car, the experience is almost impossible. “I was really able to put my finger on the real problems of this empty Spain”, recognizes Pedro, 25, a graduate in quality, safety and food technology. His two rewarding internships in an agricultural cooperative in a village of less than 300 inhabitants pleased him, but also opened his eyes: “Services are lacking: poor telephone network, bank branch open one day a week for two hours. Large companies do not invest, because there are few inhabitants. And the few who remain leave, because the services decrease, it is the snake which bites its tail. »
Extend the experience
Luis Antonio Saez, professor of applied economics at the University of Zaragoza, creator of the pioneering “Challenge” scholarships from 2018, in the region of Aragon (which the government was then inspired by), remains realistic on the objectives: “We want to put an end to this prejudice that the rural environment is boring and above all to plant seeds so that the students remember this experience and, why not, that they come back to work in these villages. »
Some, few in number, have been able to extend their experience through a contract. Like Jennifer, 26, a marketing graduate. After two internships in 2019 and 2020 in small villages, she stayed with a wine producer who hired her in Lécera (600 inhabitants). «People are more grateful than in town, they see that we are making an effort to work in a rural environment,” she says, even if she preferred to live in Zaragoza, about sixty kilometers away.
With her degree in art history and her master’s degree in wealth management, Eugenia, 25, had no trouble getting a job after her internships with the Territoire Mudejar association in Tobed (215 inhabitants). . «I discovered that there is work elsewhere than in the big museums in town. I don’t know if this program will help to repopulate, but at least we see if we like it, she assures. The historical heritage exists in the villages, where one can establish a closer link with the inhabitants. » Victoria Trasobares, director of the association, collaborates with this internship program to break the neck of «this erroneous view that nothing happens in this rural Spain, and that everything is in the city».
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An “empty Spain” over 53% of the territory
The term “empty Spain” (« empty spain ») refers to Spanish areas that suffered large waves of emigration during the rural exodus of the 1950s and 1960s.
Empty Spain encompasses the two Castilles, Extremadura, Aragon and Rioja, regions which represent 53% of the territory but in which only 5% of the population lives.
In 2019, 90% of the population lived in 30% of the municipalities. From 2010 to 2019, 80% of municipalities recorded population losses. According to UN estimates, in 2035, 33% of the Spanish population will live in Madrid and Barcelona.