Spain: Living in a European Slum | European Journal

Cañada Real is the biggest slum in the EU and lies on the outskirts of the Spanish capital Madrid. Tens of thousands of people live in illegally-built huts and shacks.

Many of the residents who have recently moved to the slum are victims of Spain's financial crisis who could no longer afford their rent or mortgage. But the shanty town is a thorn in the eye of local authorities. Nearby communities that own the land want to turn Cañada Real into a recreation area. Bulldozers repeatedly show up to demolish the illegal dwellings. Now work is underway to find a fair and equitable solution.

[ACPILOT]

People assume the slums is full of bad people.
There is good and bad people everywhere rich or poor.

[CarlH]

Poverty exist everywhere even in the EU and the USA.

[ancylostomiasis]

I don't get it. People buy/rent houses near the slum because they were cheaper and now they want the local people out? Who do they think they are?

[bobforton]

People are surprised there's poverty in Europe? Its always been there. So has corruption. In Spain there are many politicians, former mayors and council leaders in jail for this, and the south has been a haven for organized crime (from the UK, Ireland, Russia, Holland, Eastern Europe) for years. Add to that the economic crisis and a lack of manufacturing  industry. Many young Spanish leave to work abroad.

[loumcast]

Lourdes moved there LONG before the crisis started, she has been there most of her life!   The great majority of those people don't want to work!   They want to live rent free and not have to pay any utilities!   By the way your commentator said tens of thousands live there, when the social worker actually said ten thousand.   Get a better translator please!

[tforaodg]

I was born and grew up in a neighborhood like this.

Very friendly people there.

[casper-zrklsgl]

Actually such poverty is common in Roma neighborhoods and villages in Central, Eastern -- and increasingly Western -- Europe.

[TheMariepi]

"Cañada" is a "cattle track" or glen, then "Cañada Real " means "Royal Glen" (a track used for cattle movement until a few years ago in migrations of cattle and merino sheep twice a year between mountains in northern Spain and others that there is in the south). When Romania joined the European Union thousands and thousands of Romanian
gypsies and poor Romanians came to Spain, as well as thousands of
Moroccans and Africans, and as they had no money to rent a house and
even less to buy a house, they made shacks and very rustic houses on the sides of the
"cañada" or cattle track, where criminals began to sell drugs massively, which made
other humble people like many Spanish gypsies and drug addicts settle
down next to the "cañada" to live off the sale of drugs. Logically that place is a mixture of poverty and extreme delinquency (something similar to the favelas of Rio de Janeiro) I do not understand why the son of a ... who publishes this video says that it is the usual level of life of the Spaniards

[Jay-btxu]

I live in similar kind of thing in India. I didn't knew poverty exist in western world. Sad to see

[angelowong]

Poor people exists in every part of the world.. Rich people must do their part and govt must protect people vulnerable to poverty trap..

[blackmaster]

This is the future of the whole of Europe!

[aDionisss]

We have slums like that a lot in Bulgaria and is where the crime rate and poverty is highest in most cities in Bulgaria. In Bulgaria we call them mahala's

[heruedisschannel]

Your friend from 🇮🇩 Indonesia, it is very supportive

[neejohnenjegekkiv]

I don't get why they don't want to be resettled tho. Seems to me that part of an resettlement plan is being allocated social housing...

[chochopav]

If the banks are to control the money they need to take yheir responcibility towards the people! The banking system as we see it today has to GO!

[ftecconn]

That would be Prime Real Estate if Spain was Expanding Economically

[bigmoney]

not that bad, love thow their local people want to help them

[reviewunboxinges]

basic salary in Spain is 1k euros a month. Rent of 55 sqm flat here is 800 euros.

[viteazul]

on the road there was an inscription that said: '' drum spre scoala''. that is romanian language. so this is probably a gypsy slum.

[kermitdafrog]

She said "there's 10, 000 people here" not tens of thousands of people here '_'