Becoming Spanish

A while back, I received a private message from a young Turk who followed my blog. He was asking about professional opportunities in Spain for those who didn’t want to do manual labor such as running a kebab restaurant or a hairdresser. His comments helped me accept that I was rather dramatizing about immigrant stories and elaborating on the cases of the most unfortunate ones who were making it from the bottom. He wanted to know what Spain had to offer to people like him, university graduates who were fluent in multiple languages and who considered themselves as global citizens. In this post, I will dedicate a few words to address this situation, using personas based on a large number of expats I know who are based in Spain, especially in Barcelona. Before anything else, however, I must add that this post is for non-EU citizens because unless you’re a British citizen with a complicated Brexit situation, you have it easy in Spain with an EU passport. Apart from learning Spanish (only if you want), familiarizing yourself with the culture, and getting a NIE, you don’t need to do much more. In other words, for EU citizens who move to major cities in Spain, the situation is akin to those of provincial Spaniards moving elsewhere within their country for work.

NIE refers to "Número de Identidad de Extranjero" (Foreigner Identification Number) and everyone who does not have a Spanish nationality should obtain it to reside legally in Spain. Drawn from my own experience, I discuss in this episode steps to get your NIE.

DELE (Diplomas de Español como Lengua Extranjera) are official diplomas issued by the Spanish Instituto Cervantes on behalf of the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science. In this episode, I discuss different levels of DELE Diplomas, give recommendations on which ones to take, and offer suggestions on how to ace it!

Hello and welcome! Thank you so much for joining me in Becoming Spanish, where I make content - from a foreigner's perspective - about what it is like living in Spain today. In each episode, I will discuss a topic I consider valuable for immigrants and expats living in Spain. I welcome your comments and questions so drop me a line on becomingspanish.com Cheers, Meltem