Foreigners Working in BCN

I'm happy to have helped somehow to my beloved Ch. to find a job in Barcelona, specially in such difficult times. For a foreigner it is not that difficult to find a job here provided that he/she is European and his/her level of Spanish is enough so as to deal with a normal day's life. Since I came back, I've astonishingly discovered how many foreigners are in fact living in Barcelona.

Without trying to be derogatory, I'm not referring to those commonly identified as immigrants, which were already numerous before I left 5 years ago, but a sort of different kind of new dwellers of the city which would be better named as working tourists. If you speak any European language, plus Spanish, then it will be easy for you to find a job in some of the various contact or call centers which are outsourcing this service to important European companies and banks. I had never imagined so many Polish and Hungarian girls living in Barcelona.

For Asian people, apart from Chinese, which are another case, it is far complicated. For instance, Japan, which is the case, on the one hand, their companies land here with the whole staff in a parcel. On the other hand, very few local companies actually have contact with them in Japan and, therefore, they don't require the service of native Japanese to intercede for them from here. This awkward situation would improve if Japanese companies were more flexible with their staff and there were also more Catalan companies exporting or trading with Japan, which is difficult due to the customary Japanese rigidity.

In brief, one only needs to get a working permit to stay and work in Spain, which is only valid to stay in any other Schengen countries but not to work in there, and some hints of Spanish. I guess the three only legal ways to get that permit are by getting a contract before coming, a student visa (which might allow you only to work in part-time jobs) or by marrying a UE citizen. The rest, just tenacity and good luck.