2023-06-11 04:10:00
On November 24, Veronica Rodio, a native of Mendoza (Argentina), boarded a plane in Buenos Aires bound for Spain. It was not a vacation trip, but the search for a new life. Verónica, 45, had a good job as head of Hygiene and Safety at a hospital. But, given the country’s economic downturn, she decided to cross the Atlantic with one of her four children. Although her initial idea was to live in the Burgos town of Belorado, as part of a project to repopulate rural areas with entrepreneurs, and for the rest of her family to accompany her later, the plan did not work. She was clear that she wanted to live in the north of Spain, and her husband, from Argentina, discovered on the internet that one of the safest and cleanest cities was Oviedo. So Verónica settled there, and it didn’t take long for her to find work as a clerk in a mattress store on Valentín Masip street. Today, she is one of the 19,191 foreigners affiliated with Social Security in Asturias, according to April data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations.
The number of foreign contributors in the Principality has grown by 46% in a decade: in April 2013, the figure was 13,086. Of the more than 19,000 that currently exist, most (13,050) come from countries outside the European Union, especially from Latin America. When comparing the main emitting nations with those of ten years ago, it is intuited how the political and social instability of certain Latin American geographies has pushed many of its citizens to seek a more prosperous future in Asturias. For example, in 2013 the non-European country with the most immigrants in the Principality was Paraguay. That position has been replaced by Venezuela, which a decade ago was not even on the list of the top ten emitters, but which has been forced into a transatlantic exodus due to the economic and institutional deterioration of the Bolivarian regime. Almost 2,000 professionals residing in Asturias come from there. Next comes Colombia, with 1,446, double the number ten years ago, when it had barely 700. Paraguay, whose evolution has barely changed (it remains slightly above a thousand), has been relegated to the third step.
From that continent comes Raul Echeverri, 39 years old. Born in Venezuela, he is of Colombian parents, so he has dual citizenship, but his ancestors came from the Basque Country. A doctor specializing in neurosurgery, in 2021 he made a training tour of several European countries, including Spain. He spent a month at the Asturias Medical Center (Oviedo), after which he returned to Cali, Colombia. But recently they called him from the Asturian hospital to join his staff. “I am still with the procedures for the approval that allows me to practice here as a neurosurgeon. The Medical Center has a high professional level and I am very happy,” he says. So happy that his wife – she is also a doctor and will take the MIR – and his two daughters are already preparing for his arrival in Oviedo. “I hope that those of us who come to live on this earth contribute to the growth and development of the region and of the country that has so kindly received us,” says Dr. Echeverri.
Within the European Union, in the last decade Romania has remained the main origin of foreign workers in Asturias (it is followed at a great distance by Portugal). There are already almost 3,000 Romanians, of whom more than 500 work at home.
Elena Moses, 60 years old, is one of them. Actually, Elena is from Moldova, a country with a historical link with Romania. She came from there in 2006. She worked in Oviedo for 13 years, although she also spent a stage in a town in León. In 2019, before the pandemic, Elena decided to take a break and returned to her country, where she was able to spend more time with her husband and two of her daughters (she has another son who lives in Italy). But three months ago she decided to return to her adopted land, and since then she has worked at a home in the center of Oviedo. “I am very happy here, I have more Spanish than Romanian friends,” she says.
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