“I’m leaving Madrid”: why it has suffered the greatest exodus for a decade

MADRID.- “In 2013, I already returned to town because of the first crisis, and now I’m back for the second. What’s the point of being in Madrid if I don’t have to go to the office and nothing that has been done before can be done either?», Asks Sara, 32, who does not want to give her last name. In March of last year, his communications company, like so many others, sent workers home and in April he fired them with a promise to rehire them as soon as the situation was clarified. “I stayed at home that month, but later decided to go back to my mom to save some money,” he explains. She has since lived in her hometown of La Mancha and, although she was rehired in October, she does not plan to return to the capital until it is essential to return to the office or there have leisure and culture before the coronavirus.

Dozens of people have left Madrid since the start of the pandemic a year ago. Sara reflects the story of a generation marked by two crises, but there are many more. “It’s an option closely related to the possibility of teleworking and not everyone can afford it. As in many other fields, it is marked by the diagonal that divides Madrid into a south-east of workers whose professions are not so easily transferable and a north-east with more professions in which it is possible to telework “, emphasizes sociologist and professor of Complutense Margarita Barañano.

This is the case of Juan Gutiérrez, a 35-year-old married Asturian lawyer and father of two daughters, a third of whom is on the way. “The idea of ​​returning to Oviedo was something that had always haunted us. For me, Madrid had become a hostile city for a long time. I love sports and it’s more difficult to play it there and when I had my first daughter we realized that the recreational possibilities with her were limited, ”she said over the phone. They were able to move because the American firm, whose Gutiérrez subsidiary is run in Spain, is ready to set up teleworking and because his wife’s business has also been in this situation since March. “We bought a house here and in my environment three pairs of friends have also come back and are trying to restart business in Asturias,” he says.

In the first half of 2020, a period marked by the pandemic, the Community of Madrid had negative internal migration for the first time in 10 years. In other words, there were more people who left for other communities than those who arrived. Specific 1264, according to INE. “We do not know the extent of this phenomenon, but I do not think it is massive or that it will last over time”Stresses Barañano. The vice-dean of the College of Economists of the Community of Madrid, Ana López, supports her words: “Companies are realizing that teleworking was greeted with an initial euphoria, but not everyone is emotionally ready to be. isolated for so long, ”says Hermógenes del Real, economist and professor at the Autonomous University of Madrid. “The reality is that teleworking is more deeply rooted in countries of northern Europe compared to less frequent use in countries of the south and west. It is still too early to determine what percentage can become structural and, in any case, it will depend on certain productive sectors ”.

The fact of not having to go to an office is what motivated in most cases this movement, with the lack of leisure activities linked to large cities and high rents in Madrid. The square meter is paid in the capital at nearly 15 euros, 8.6% less than a year ago, according to the portal Idealista. However, the fact that 70% of the inhabitants of Madrid own property contributes to reduced mobility. “These departures from the city may have occurred to a greater extent in an age group with fewer dependents and living on rent,” says Barañano. Most experts agree that a pandemic will not be enough for big demographic changes. “It’s a very exceptional situation. Social changes require greater depth and I think the opportunity to leave was given in a small group “says Luis Alfonso Camarero, professor in the Department of Theory, Methodology and Social Change at the Distance University.

Here is the profile of Alicia Velasco, 38 years old from Madrid, who works in the social services sector. In December, she and her partner Pablo Gutiérrez del Álamo, a 41-year-old journalist, packed their bags and settled in five minutes from the beach in Alicante. “Alicia needed to leave Madrid every now and then, but without the pandemic I don’t think it would have been so easy to convince me,” says Gutiérrez del Álamo. She found a job opportunity there and he can work wherever he wants. In September, after the holidays, they realized they preferred something smaller and quieter. “Without the cultural offer, Madrid is still a giant city with a lot of pollution,” he says.

Aware of this reality, The authorities in Madrid have tried to promote cultural and leisure activities to a certain extent.. It is one of the few communities that has not completely shut down its hotel business and has also allowed exceptions for theaters, cinemas and concert halls to expand its business beyond the rest of the businesses.

Some are gone never to return and others will. But the city will continue here and this pandemic is also an opportunity to understand what urban model will come. “It’s not just work that makes us urban, but also the culture and the way we manage social services, which are concentrated in urban areas. This is what we must consider, because the metropolitan problem is a global problem ”, defends Luis Alfonso Camarero, of the UNED.

Sara mentally travels the 90 kilometers that separate her town from La Mancha to Madrid on several occasions: “It’s great for me to be at my mother’s house to save money, but as soon as normalcy is barely restored, I want to go back. I even miss the stress of Madrid ”.

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