Hi all I'm new at all this and would love some help plz. Ok my name is Sean I'm 42 years old and I'm from Belfast in the north of Ireland. I'm planning to go to Spain possibly Barcelona and I'm in need of a job and I was thinking maybe fruit picking would be fun and a way to meet people from lots of other count. The help that I am stuck on is how I fined fruit picking jobs in Barcelona ax I've googled fruit picking jobs and joined fb groups but still haven't got the help I need. Plz plz can some1 point me in the right direction as I'm desperate to find something and keen to book a flight and get out there and start my adventure thanks guys.
Fruit picking jobs
https://www.pickingjobs.com/spain/
You can check the link above. Scroll down and it lists Spanish farms that offer online job applications. You need to also check the Corona virus travel restrictions currently and you may need to put off your move until the virus situation changes. I have no idea how Brexit affects jobs but am sure someone will log on soon and give you advice.
Good luck and thank you for filling out your Profile Page.
[ Edit: Edited on 13-Jul-2020, 04:21 GMT by Beausoleil ]
You'll be ok to work in the EU for the rest of 2020 because we're still in the transition period. The same applies to your EHIC card (I assume you've got one?): it's valid until at least the end of this year.
For obvious reasons, farmers organise their workers well in advance so it's late to be looking for a summer fruit picking job.
Although UK citizens can now visit Spain without a quarantine requirement you may find that employers are reluctant to take them on because we still have a higher virus rate than other EU countries. No farmer will want to risk an outbreak amongst his workers.
Fruit-picking abroad is no longer the 'romantic' back-packing 'bring your own tent and help out for a week or so' option it was in the 70s and 80s: farming practices have changed across the EU. All hand-harvesting is physically hard, especially in the summer heat of e.g. Spain. The work day is long, with very early starts (4 or 5am is not uncommon), accommodation and food are likely to be minimalistic and what you earn depends on how hard you work (piece rate). If you don't work at the minimum rate required you're likely to lose the job. That's why planting and harvesting work on larger farms in the UK and many other EU countries is often carried out by agency-organised worker 'gangs' from poorer EU countries such as Bulgaria and Romania.
[ Edit: Edited on 13-Jul-2020, 06:32 GMT by leics2 ]
No amount of work or long hours or even heat will put me off in my pursuit of relocating to Spain. I do appreciate your response because every thing helps me, thanks. Maybe you know of an employer that would take me on right away? That would be good.
Also I'm an Irish citizen with an Irish passport and as you probably already know the corona virus is really low in our country compared to yours which may or may not help my situation, also because the Irish passport is still an EU passport could help me also do you think? We are staying in the EU unlike the brexit ones.
[ Edit: Edited on 13-Jul-2020, 06:49 GMT by Seanleebrown ]
Re-locating is not at all the same as doing a fruit-picking job for a few weeks.
The UK is leaving the EU at the end of 2020 so you will face difficulties in both living and working in any EU country after that point. In Jan 2021 you will need the correct paperwork (e.g. visa, work permit, residency) so do bear that in mind if you want to stay in Spain after December this year. Working illegally in any country is really not a good idea. If you have an Irish passport, or are willing to get one, none of this will apply.
Barcelona is very large city with a large surrounding conurbation. For obvious reasons you won't find any fruit-picking or farm jobs in the city itself but you may be able to pick up casual bar work or similar (though if you have no or little Spanish or Catalan such work will be much more difficult to find in Barcelona than in e.g. Benidorm).
Given the lack of online advertising for Spanish farm work (which does suggest there isn't a great need at the moment) visiting a recruitment agency in Barcelona might be an option. Alternatively, if you have reasonable Spanish or Catalan you might use google to find any farms on the outskirts of the city area and then contact them to see if they require workers.
I'm not sure a stint fruit-picking will be much help getting a foot in the door to any sort of more permanent relocation, but it may be an adventure.
If you are trying to properly relocate, bear in mind that Spain's economy isn't in good shape, and not about to get any better soon with Brexit and coronavirus, they had 14% unemployment at the start of this year before all this began. So it's the usual deal of lots of locals looking for work so why would they give a job to an incomer.
The exception to this could be the tourist trade, where on the Costas a native English-speaker could pick up customer-facing work. But it's not going to be a good time for it, as a percentage of their usual customers aren't going to be getting on board a plane this year.
I hear what your saying and thank you for your input. The brexit thing won't effect me as I'm an Irish citizens with an Irish passport so that's 1 less thing to worry about. Fruit picking first come into my mind because that's what I thought would be the easiest way to get my foot in the door and onto the employment ladder so to speak. I'm also a kitchen porter so I can check around restaurants aswell, but like you said places may not be busy because of the virus. Thanks for your help.
Quoting Seanleebrown
The brexit thing won't effect me as I'm an Irish citizens with an Irish passport so that's 1 less thing to worry about
I meant in terms of it affecting the Spanish economy.
Good luck with your mission. I think in normal times I'd be suggesting you just hop on a plane and stir around Barcelona looking for work, so long as you can afford to live for a week or two in a hostel and get a flight home if it doesn't work out. But with the coronavirus, I think it may be a case of hunkering down and waiting it out like the rest of the world.
This week Der Spiegel has an article on European farm workers:
https://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/cheap-and-expendible-the-systematic-exploitation-of-harvest-workers-in-europe-a-b9237b95-f212-493d-b96f-e207b9ca82d9
As a photographer I did an assignment on the grape harvest in Spain. The pickers are very tough. Hands like armour from all the wasp stings. Most of the ones I met were Portuguese but they are now being replaced by Moroccans. I am sure there are lots of jobs much easier in Barcelona.