In Spain there are many young people who are forced to accept jobs with precarious salaries, which makes them impossible to access a home or have a stable life. It is there that different countries of Europe come into play and, especially, Switzerland. This country, like most countries in the center and northern Europe, has high wages that, added to the possibility of being able to work there without a visa, make it an even more attractive destination.
This is the case of Sara Martínez, a 22 -year -old Burgos who emigrated two years ago to the Alpino country, tells him in an interview for the channel Mevoyalmundo. “I work as a waitress and working in supermarket I am winning more than an engineer in Spain. I don’t know any engineer who is winning 5,000 euros per month,” he confesses.
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Sara arrived in Switzerland with 20 years and a suitcase full of hope. “In Madrid I saw that you did not earn a lot of money and being independent is very expensive. So I said: What is the country that I have closer to Spain in which you can earn a lot of money?” The answer was clear: Switzerland, just two hours of flight from his native Burgos.
Nanny to almost 5,000 euros per month
Like many Spaniards who emigrate, Sara started from below. “I started like everyone else, Nanny (Au Pair), taking care of children. I found work online in the third request, I was lucky.” The conditions like Au Pair were hard: “I had a schedule from 7 in the morning to 12, half an hour of pause, and then until 5 or 6 in the afternoon. But when you are home with the children, you are 24 hours a day, the seven days of the week. You do not rest.”
The initial salary was around 600 francs, well below what I needed to live in a country where “a little small little salmon costs 15 euros and I saw one chicken the other day for 50 euros.” But it was the first step to get the work permit, essential to legally settle. That is, visa is not necessary, but I do get the work permit.
Currently, Sara explains that she combines two works that are in a supermarket with 60% of the day (about 2,300 euros) and another in a shisha bar where she works according to the demand. “With both jobs, Clean would take almost 5,000 francs per month” (about 5,347.85 euros to change), he explains, although he acknowledges that the rhythm is exhausting: “I get home at 11 at night and I get up sometimes at 5 in the morning. I don’t think I hold much because I am very tired.”
“I’ve been German for two years and I don’t understand anything about German”
One of the greatest obstacles is the language. “The German is the most difficult language in the world, and above here it is a dialect, it is a German Swiss. I have been two years and I do not understand pope,” Sara confesses. This linguistic barrier limits when finding work “here they ask you German yes or yes, or English. Thank God I know English, then at first I defended myself,” he explains.
The lack of mastery of the language also affects the salary roof. “Without German, more than 4,000 or 5,000 francs I will not win, and that I am in two jobs,” he laments. For those who aspire to better positions, Sara’s advice is clear: “As you do not put the batteries and put yourself in a school every day, you do not get it.”
“For less than 2,000 euros you can’t find a floor”
Finding housing is another ordeal. “Below the 2,000 euros you find nothing in Zurich,” says Sara, who lives in Espreitenbach, 25 minutes from the center. His diaphanous study of just “7 meters per seven” costs him a fortune, but prefers independence: “A normal three -bedroom floor costs 2,000 francs or more.”
The Swiss paradox is evident. “If you don’t have a house you can’t work, and if you don’t have a job you have no home. It’s very complicated,” he explains. Many resort to shared rooms that range between 600 and 700 euros, but even so, “there are many interested people and give priority to students.”
“I do not return to work for 1,000 euros per month”
Despite the difficulties, Sara is clear: “I do not return to work for 1,000 euros per month. In Spain you work to live, you work to survive. If you have enough 10 or 20 euros a month it is a lot.”
With discipline, he says that up to 2,000 francs per month can be saved, “but that without leaving, without eating salmon, it is a very restricted life that in the end you get bored.” A year, he estimates that he can keep about 25,000 francs, “but compared to what people earn here, for them they are nothing. Here are people winning 6,000, 7,000, 8,000 francs per month.”
“Here people stay skinny, they go to Spain, fattening and returns”
The cost of life is brutal. Sara spends about 250 francs per month on food, being very austere. “Here all the people I have met like this, skinny, and then they go to Spain, fattening, and comes here again and stays like this again,” he jokes bitterly.
But not everything is money. Loneliness weighs like a slab. “Switzerland is a country where people are very focused on working. They only think of money, money, money. There is a lot of loneliness. If you do not come accompanied or are not very strong of mind, here you get depressed,” he warns.
“You have to be very strong mentally”
Sara does not sweeten reality and explains why Switzerland chose. “I have come here to have a better future, but everything that shines is not gold. It is very complicated, very difficult. You have to be very strong mentally, be clear about what you want.”
For those who plan to emigrate, their recommendation is clear: “to come, to look for life, because your mind opens and makes you value the things you have in your country.” But he warns: “Do not take revenge that you are going to learn German in a month. Everything is full of foreigners, the Swiss are very closed, very cold.”
Sara’s final message is overwhelming: “You have to be strong and move on, fight for what you want. If you don’t do it, nobody is going to do it for you.” A life lesson from the Swiss Alps that puts in perspective the real price of the European dream.