Terminology intro
In all situations, one of the biggest barriers for refugee communities is access to education and the labor market. In general, if they do manage to find (illegal) work, they are often employed (and exploited) in precarious jobs such as food delivery (an extremely demanding job in Spain, mainly done by refugee and migrant people) and barely or not at all make it to the end of the month, not to mention the physical and mental challenges that most people in these situations face.
Although many people are highly motivated to qualify and develop further, to work under better conditions, and consequently to gain stability and the opportunity to provide for their families, they simply do not have the opportunity to do so because they lack documents, economic means, knowledge of the labor market, and/or the skills required for certain jobs.
In addition to the above, it is also important to mention that trauma and other types of past or present negative experiences often prevent many refugee populations in Spain from participating in more advanced retraining programs, as these programs are often not prepared to work with people from this background.
Furthermore, while a refugee person with documents has-in theory-access to Spain's health care system, which includes (very) basic psychosocial support, the professionals who offer this support are not specialized in the specific cultural contexts and are not specialized in working with the mental challenges that refugee people commonly face.
In conclusion, there are many possible improvements in the Spanish refugee reception system, and there are huge gaps to be filled in terms of adequate support at various levels, including education, mental support, and job integration. Fortunately, there are a number of specialized NGOs that carry out programs focused on this very aspect and, like us, provide a holistic approach to specialized refugee support.