| Dear Olive Press readers, | | Welcome back to another round-up of what’s going on in Spain this week. Let’s jump into it. | | You guys seem to have been as fascinated as I was with our visualisation piece on the clusters of European expats/immigrants along the Costa del Sol and the Costa Blanca, and the parallel societies they have formed. | | The story was the work of our new journalist, Alessio Ghirlanda, who has started his OP tenure with a bang. So big congratulations to him, and I hope you all welcome him on board and go easy on him in the comments. | | While the maps are both fascinating and startling in equal measures, they have once again reared the dual head of a particularly thorny issue among expats in Spain – that of immigration and assimilation. | | Many Europeans come to Spain for good weather and good life, but not to integrate and participate in Spanish society. And it’s true that it’s very, very hard to do so, even with the best will and intention. | | But it raises the question: Would Europeans living in Spain tolerate these ‘expat enclaves’ in their own countries? In fact does the word ‘expat’ even have a place in the modern era? | | Should it be recognised that the Brits, Belgians, Scandinavians and Germans that are busily colonising the Alicante coastline are simply immigrants like any other – and that they have a duty to integrate and assimilate? | | Or is there an argument to make that they are exempt? Since these people are usually net fiscal contributors to the Spanish economy, does that let them off? | | The irony is that the immigrants who come to Spain from, say, Africa - and of course South America - are generally much quicker to learn the language and participate in society – even if there is alarming data that they too get shunted into ghettos (although not voluntarily). | | There has been a lot of hoo-haa-ing this week about which queue Brits with TIE cards should join at the airport now the EES system is in place. The collective Spanish state clearly has had no idea. First it was ‘join the EES queue’. Then the police said ‘don’t join the EES queue’. Now, finally, the Interior Ministry has also said ‘don’t join the EES queue’. So Brits living in Spain should now go to the ‘other passports’ queue and flash their residency card and passport and get waved through without issue. Just tell that to the airport staff next time they all tell you ten different things. | | Another running sore in Spain recently has been the issue of bullying. Two teenage girls were found hanging from trees in a park in Jaen last week. Absolutely shocking and devastating. The reporting has been that they were suffering from a campaign of bullying. One of the fathers, however, has denied that his daughter was suicidal, and instead called it ‘the perfect murder’. | | Some good news – expect unseasonal warmth next week! Starting from Saturday, a nice warm front is going to roll in across Spain and bring the temperatures up above 20C. The biggest beneficiaries will be on the Costa Blanca, where highs of 24C can be expected early next week. The Costa del Sol should also get a pleasant 21C. | | An old favourite of ours – the escapades of Estepona’s highly successful-but-secretly-sleazy mayor have caught up with him once again. Some of you might remember that he was accused of sexually harassing a male Policia Local officer and his wife last year. Well, the case was thrown out – not because it didn’t happen, but apparently explicit videos showed that it was all consensual. Bullet dodged for our plucky mayor? Guess again – within the investigation, it turned out that he gave the wife a job at the town hall paying €3,000 a month, for which she did nothing. He’s now ‘voluntarily’ repaid her salary from his own pocket. But he’s denied doing anything wrong… | | Enjoy the weekend folks. And please do get in touch with any thoughts or comments you might have! | | | | | | | Edificio Centro Comercial El Duque, first floor, Carretera N340, km 144.5 | | San Luis de Sabinillas, Malaga 29692, Spain | | Copyright © 2025 The Olive Press, All rights reserved. | | | |
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