It’s not a trend yet, but it’s definitely happening.
British expatriates, who once dreamed of a relaxed Mediterranean life on Spain’s coasts, are increasingly packing up and heading inland.
Earlier this week, Euro Weekly News reported on the case of Anne Trust, a 75-year-old British woman who decided to leave the Catalan seaside town of Mataro after more than a decade. When she moved there in 2012, the town seemed perfect. But now, she says it has become crowded with tourists, expensive and noisy.
And her story is far from unique.
The Brit who abandoned Mijas Costa: “All my neighbours were Brits!”
The same disillusionment pushed 78-year-old Peter Moreve to abandon Mijas Costa, a coastal town between Malaga and Marbella, where he had lived since retiring in 2006.
At the time, he was seeking better weather and a calmer pace of life compared to London. But two decades later, the lifestyle he once appreciated had been overshadowed by the growing number of fellow Brits.
Now, in Mijas, about 40 percent of the approximately 93,000 residents are foreign nationals, most of whom are British.
“All my neighbours were British. It was not Spain, it was England in the sun. I wanted to live in Spain, I don’t particularly enjoy living among Brits,” he told The i Paper.
He moved near Cordoba: “If I live in Spain, I want to be part of it”
And he meant it. In 2018, Moreve moved to Lucena, a town of about 43,000 people, 67 kilometres from Cordoba, where very few foreigners reside.
“If I live in a country, I want to be part of it,” he explained.
Despite having lived in Spain for nearly 20 years and speaking Spanish, Moreve admitted that his language skills are still not good enough to pass the citizenship exam.
Lucena.
Credit: Creative Commons
Even so, he said his love for Spanish culture remains intact: “I like Spaniards because at first sight they accept you for what you are. Then they talk about you behind your back, as Britons would,” he joked.
Divorced, with two adult sons, Moreve values the sense of community he never found in England. “I like the fact that when you go into a shop, everyone says ‘Hi’,” he said. Spaniards, he believes, are “less judgemental and more accepting” than Brits.
The rush for a more ‘Spanish’ Spain
Peter Moreve and Anne Trust’s views are echoed in new trends identified by Spain’s authorities: among foreigners, there is a growing interest in inland areas.
Places such as Toledo, Salamanca, Avila, Extremadura, or Ronda are becoming homes for more and more expatriates who are moving away from the over-touristed coastal areas they settled in years ago.
These regions are less commercialised, some of them barely have tourists, and remain more representative of Spanish tradition and lifestyle. And many expatriates are feeling the pull of a quieter, more ‘Spanish’ Spain.
Read here more stories about life in Spain.