Cave Living
© vic labadieAnto Nito sits on his bed, inside his Cave-House.
Several young people, many of them graduates, move to tourist areas to find a seasonal job that helps them cope with the economic crisis that affects Spain. After months of unemployment they find themselves unable to pay a rent and decided to live in caves.

Ibiza Island is one of the favorite's destinations for those who desperately look for a season job. Many of them omit they graduates studies in their curriculums 'they recommend us to do so in the government job agency'. For them to be overqualified is one of the most normal disadvantages. You easily could find engineers, architects and philologist working on restaurants kitchens, hotels, or as bartenders.

Anto Nito, an agronomist engineer accepted to show his cave to this reporter. He ended his studies recently and found himself with no work opportunities and returning to his parent's home with empty pockets. His mother had suffered a reduction on her working hours and salary; his father lost most of his clients and is close to be unemployed. Anto Nito, who speaks three languages fluently and two more in medium level, went to Ibiza to find a job. He found there too many people from the Spanish peninsula with the same purpose and not enough work and accommodation for all.

Cave Living_1
© vic labadieAnto Nito works on the crafts he sells on the markets.
"I want to save money. I've been accepted in a Landscaping Master's degree in Barcelona", says Anto, never losing his smile. He arrived on May and since he works on crafts markets and for a discotheque as public relation person.

"It was impossible to find economic accommodation and someone show me this place. I doubt it at first, but there was no other option". Anto Nito cleaned the cave from dirt and plants and installed himself there. "On the island there are many cavemen, specially on this area. Most of them have graduate studies; some of them have jobs of 4,50 € per hour, with no day off. Some of them don't even have that."

Even though he is working hard, he is not earning enough for his school year and knows that finding a job in Barcelona would be very difficult. "I hope to find a squat to live there and to receive the scholarship, otherwise I won't be able achieve my goal."