Indeed, the dispute among Spain, Britain and Gibraltar has threatened an economic lifeline for Ms. Ballesteros Benítez and about 7,000 other Spaniards who cross the border daily to work within the confines of this 2.6-square-mile promontory — dominated by the Rock of Gibraltar — where the economy grew 8 percent last year. It is one of the few places in Europe to have emerged unscathed from the financial crisis. By contrast, unemployment averages 40 percent among the 267,000 inhabitants in the towns closest to Gibraltar — known collectively as the Campo de Gibraltar — about 13 percentage points above the already high average levels of joblessness in the rest of Spain. “Politicians can claim sovereignty and threaten each other, but everybody who actually lives around Gibraltar can see that we need each other,” said Yolanda Argüet, who works for a shoe retailer in Gibraltar. “Of course, I would much prefer to be working in my own country, but that’s not really possible now.”
Posted on: Sat, 14 Sep 2013 21:59:16 +0000
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