The
Gambian Ambassador to Spain has that said his host country has one of the
highest numbers of Gambians in Europe, and that remittance from Spain to Gambia
is among the highest in Europe.
“The
Kingdom of Spain has one of the highest, if not the highest, numbers of
Gambians living in any one country in Europe,” said Ambassador Lang Yabou who
is the Gambian Ambassador to Spain with concurrent accreditation to Italy,
Greece, Malta and the United Nations Agencies based in Rome and Madrid such as
FAO, IFAD, WFP and WTO.
Mr
Yabou said officially, a total of 19,319 Gambians are registered with the
embassy in Madrid but “not all Gambians are registered with the embassy, so it
is difficult to determine the exact number of Gambians living in Spain right
now”.
“It
is a known fact that the majority of Gambians who came to Spain did it through
irregular migration,” he said. “But
thank God, most of them were able to regularise their status and are legally
resident in the country and a sizeable number of them have acquired Spanish
nationality.”
Ambassador
Yabou said a large number of Gambian migrants in Spain, especially those who
arrived in the country from the 1970s, are mainly agricultural and industrial
workers most of whom have become successful in one way or the other.
“Generally, a lot of them have done very well
for themselves both in Spain and in The Gambia over the years,” he said, adding
that because of the successes of these migrants, the amount of Diaspora
remittances from Gambians in Spain is among the highest for The Gambia.
“A
lot of Gambians in Spain continue to make personal investments in properties
and other assets and today, a number of them have established successful
businesses doing retail, telecommunications, travel agents as well as money
transfer both in The Gambia and in Spain thereby creating jobs and wealth for
themselves, their employees and the society as a whole.”
However,
not all is rosy with the Gambian community in Spain. Ambassador Yabou said one of the challenges
the community is faced with is the lack of adequate amount of investment in
education by the community in the past.
“Since
Gambians are in their second generation in Spain, the level of their
participation and influence in the Spanish society could have been more than
what it is today if a lot of them, especially those born in Spain, are well
educated,” he lamented.
“This
continues to be a major concern for the embassy and we have been sensitising
Gambians about it. The good news is that the trend is changing with a number of
young Gambians in Spain now attending universities and colleges.”
