Packing your bags and moving with the whole family to where others only go on vacation sounded great for the German family made up of Jennifer Itinga Fontan and Lukas Reinike with their two children. Sun every day and the Mediterranean Sea, what could go wrong? That’s how they thought until, finally, they had to return to Germany.
“Unfortunately, the reality was different,” Reinike discovered, as he told the media. . After a long time thinking about it, they finally moved near Denia, in Alicante, in July 2014 in their search for greater security than in the German city where they lived, Remscheid.
Itinga’s parents already lived in Spain, so they decided to stay with them while they were looking for a place to live. However, they encountered a problem well known, and suffered, by the Spanish: finding a home. “We couldn’t find an affordable apartment. The landlords preferred to rent to tourists or only for short stays,” said the man. “We always went with full suitcases and never arrived completely,” he added.
Added to this was the higher cost of living and lower salaries. “I can’t work two or three times more to make ends meet,” said Itinga Fontan. For the children, as they noted, emigrating was not a problem. They soon spoke fluent Spanish, made friends and enjoyed the security of life in the village.
However, she worked 20 hours a week as an administrative assistant in a nursing home for the same salary as a part-time job in Germany. He worked from home as a customer service representative for the luxury fashion chain Breuninger. But it was not enough for them to live.
The heat, they said, didn’t help either. They finally decided to pack their bags again and return to Remscheid. “Could I have told you sooner?” or “Are you crazy? Have you returned to Remscheid from Spain?” These are some of the phrases they now have to endure from their acquaintances. But they are happy back in Germany.
