The new Spanish armada is on its way This time it has been different. In part, this has been fuelled by a change in language teaching in Spanish schools, which has given many of the current generation of graduates the rudiments of English. And while Latin America is the obvious destination for the Spanish to try their luck, recruitment consultants say that many are put off by the cumbersome paperwork. Europe is more attractive and many Spaniards have moved to Germany, which has a fairly buoyant jobs market and is actively recruiting nurses and engineers from southern Europe. Some have found work in Switzerland, but more and more are making their way across the Channel. Dottie adds: "It's only two hours by plane, with good social security and good health care. There are an awful lot of attractions to the UK in terms of quality of life. According to a recent report in El Mundo, the number of officially registered Spanish residents in the UK jumped from 57,350 at the end of 2009 to 73,659 by the end of 2012, although the real number is estimated to be 150,000. In the early years of the Spanish crisis, many of those who lost their jobs stayed in Spain, often relying on two‑year redundancy packages. Many of those payments have now come to an end. But the largest number arriving in Britain are qualified graduates who have never been able to get on to the job ladder in Spain. José Pizarro, who owns the restaurant in which Mártinez works, says: "I have people come in with really good degrees, with PhDs; they are so desperate, they are asking for any work with me. And it's just horrible. It's horrible to tell those people with that level of education that I can't employ them. Elisa Lostalé Caparroso, 22, from Zaragoza, is a qualified teacher, but says the prospects in Spain are almost non-existent for teachers, after the government slashed its education budget. There are maybe 100 places for teachers, but 2,000 or 3,000 applicants. She came here a year ago as an au pair and decided to stay after her summer job was over. She has found a new family in north London with seven-year-old twins and earns £100 a week for working six hours a day, five days a week. This has given her enough time to finish an English language course, which was her main reason for coming to Britain. I hope I will be able to return to Spain with better chances. Maybe I will be able to teach in a bilingual school. She jokes that she is doing better than a Spanish economist she met, who is a waiter in a London branch of Nandos. It is not just teachers who have been forced to come here. Nurses, too, can be found in large numbers in the UK - though only a small number have made it on to the wards of the NHS. Jonay Matos Pérez, 24, from Gran Canaria, is typical. He is working in the canteen of a large office block in central London. It is really difficult. They have cut all the funding. I was able to get a two-year contract in a private hospital in Gran Canaria, but there was nothing for me when the contract ended. He finished university in 2009 and says a lot of his contemporaries have yet to find a first job. Everybody is stressing. It is just so difficult. He hopes soon to be able to quit serving coffees and sandwiches to office workers and become a midwife in Britain. He already works part‑time at a care home on his free weekends, and has registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council. He, like most of his fellow economic refugees, is phlegmatic about leaving home in search of better prospects, even if they are not working as professionals as they once dreamed. Matos Pérez believes that it might actually be the making of him: "You feel free when you are far away from home, you grow up a bit." He adds that his 31-year-old brother still lives at home with his parents. And, unlike nearly all of his fellow Spaniards in Britain, Matos Pérez does not even mind the British weather. Not every Spaniard is happy about having to emigrate in order to find a viable alternative to life in their homeland. A popular catchphrase bandied about in Spain - and the title of a website - is "No nos vamos, nos echan," which translates as "We aren't going, they are throwing us out." This sums up the anger many feel about how the shattered economy has fractured their generation. Amancay Tapia, a 31-year-old filmmaker, has been here for eight years and has chronicled the broken dreams of many young Spanish coming to Britain. Sure you are a lawyer, and you can get a job in Starbucks, but what then? London is not El Dorado. There are an awful lot of Spanish people here looking for jobs, and many don't speak a word of English. She studied for a master's degree in Britain and stayed. It is better to be here than in Spain, dealing with Spanish bureaucracy, which is stuck in a 1975 mind set. She says it would have been impossible to have raised the funding to make a film back in Spain. It's just horrible there. She wonders whether she will ever return to her home country. Indeed, many worry that a cohort of emigrants will be lost to their nation. Felipe Navío, who runs a recruiting website for Spanish people called JobAndTalent, talks about the "Einstein generation," never better qualified, who have ventured overseas to fulfil their potential. He is hopeful, however, that Spain will ultimately benefit from this armada of nurses, teachers and lawyers, who are waiting tables and looking after children in Britain. These Spaniards will come back. It is not a lost generation. The real ones who are lost are those blue‑collar workers, out of work and unable to leave. They didn't have the chance. I'd say to any young Spaniard - consider going abroad. You will learn a language and you will make global contacts. For those who have done so, the benefits are clear. I ask Mártinez what is the best thing about Britain. I have a job.