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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...people and bought bus tickets home for 1,800 disappointed migrants. But more keep arriving. In February, when the olive harvest ends, the workers will head to Huelva for the strawberry season. "It'll be the same problem all over again," says Pedro González, of Jaén Acoge...
Shiri Java hopes not. Last year, the Mauritanian man found work in Jaén, but 2008 is different. At 8 a.m. he has joined the line at the shelter waiting for breakfast. Balancing the piece of cardboard he uses for a bed under his arm, he takes a sweet roll and plastic cup of milky coffee. "I can't go back; there's no work in my town," Java says. "I came here to work. If I lose this season, I'm finished...
...migrants who have come to the province (also called Jaén) looking for work, the problem lies not with the harvest, which is thriving, but with the economy, which is not. For more than a decade, Spanish olive growers have relied on migrants willing to beat branches and collect fallen fruit; last year they made up roughly 15% of the seasonal workforce, according to Andrés Bódalo, a representative of the Andalusian Workers' Syndicate. Yet thanks to a looming recession that has pushed unemployment to more than 11%, those migrants are finding the jobs have gone...
...situation isn't unique to Jaén, or even to Spain. Across Europe until recently, foreign laborers were the backbone of industries such as construction and hospitality. But as the economy has stuttered, unemployment among migrants has risen - by 67% over the past year in Spain. So grim has the outlook become that the Spanish government has initiated a program that essentially pays out-of-work migrants to go home. "It's not that anyone has anything against the migrants," says Bódalo. "But if you're an olive farmer and your cousin or your neighbor comes...
...Immigration Forum, comprised of organizations like Cáritas and Jaén Acoge, an NGO that works with migrants, as well as government officials, has declared the situation a social emergency. Many cities in the province run a hostel for migrant workers, but this year in Jaén the 800 hostel spaces have been overrun. The city of Ubeda has turned its municipal gym into an emergency shelter, while Cáritas oversees the Santa Clara facility. "It's crowded, there are no beds, a cold-water shower, and only one toilet," says Juan Carlos Escobedo, the local...