Latin Americans leave crisis-laden Spain(2)

"People who return home do so with a huge emotional burden because their plans for a better life have failed," said Sáez, who added that Chileans are also traveling from Spain to Norway, the UK, Switzerland or Sweden, hoping for a second chance.

Tahí Abrego, the head of Realidades, a Bolivian NGO working for social rights, said that “it's hard to go back, and even more so when you feel you haven't achieved your goals."

But quite a few migrants are staying put in Spain and hanging on, hoping for a change in a situation that looks unlikely to improve, according to forecasts of recession by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Spain’s central bank.

"I prefer to be badly off in Spain than badly off in Argentina," said Bocchio, who thinks he will turn down the Brazilian job offer and "wait out the storm," in the hope of a more promising future.

For her part, Patricia Rusmigo, head of the Uruguay-Málaga Social and Cultural Association (ACUMA), said that "large numbers of our fellow Uruguayans have returned to our country because the situation there is not as dire as it was, and there are more employment opportunities now."

Rusmigo, who has lived in Spain with her three children for 11 years, acknowledged how hard it is to pack one's bags and start all over again, and said many Uruguayans are still holding out and looking for new jobs in Spain, so as not to have to go back to Uruguay.

There is no easy solution. Levels of inequality and violence in Latin America tend to be high, so many people are trying to stay on in Spain, other migrants said.

"I would have to find myself in a very critical situation indeed to contemplate going back to Uruguay," said Rusmigo, who works in an administrative job.

Joaquín Arango, head of the Center for the Study of Migration and Citizenship (CEMC) at the Ortega y Gasset University Institute, said that "there is a certain amount of exaggeration (in discussions of migrants leaving the country) because the novelty is rather fascinating."

He said that "while it seems to be true that more migrants are leaving Spain than before, so far the numbers involved are modest, and given the enormity of the crisis, the change in direction (of the net flow of migrants) has been fairly moderate."

In Arango's view, although there is now a net outflow of people from Spain, the difference between the numbers of those who leave and those who arrive is small, both in good economic times and at present.

The high rate of unemployment and the lack of prospects is also forcing a good number of Spanish nationals, mostly young and well-qualified, to seek their fortunes abroad.

María Ángeles Sánchez, a 39-year-old Spanish engineer who lost her job after a decade of continuous employment, said that she will have to leave the country. She is polishing her English language skills in order to apply for jobs in Australia, Eastern Europe or the United Arab Emirates.

The Spanish professionals most likely to emigrate are engineers, architects, doctors and other health personnel, and one of their preferred destinations is Latin America, which has so far been fairly untouched by the crisis from the world’s rich countries.