Name: Ninis.
Nationality: Spanish.
Appearance: Well rested.
What are they? They’re young people aged 18 and over who are neither studying nor working. Or “ni estudia ni trabaja”, as the phrase has it in Spanish, hence “ninis”.
I get it. What we would call Neets then? That’s right. Or what some Italians call “bamboccioni” (“big stuffed babies”). And what their parents call “lazy freeloaders”.
Parents are so annoying. True. On the plus side, they also feed, clothe and house you for nothing.
I admit that is quite useful. Maybe they just pretend to be annoying so the children will move out? Could be. If so, the parents of some ninis in Girona and Pontevedra have found a way to be very convincing.
How’s that? Well, in Spain young people who aren’t working or studying are not entitled to benefits unless they have previously been in work for six months. Instead, their parents have been required to pay for their upkeep.
I see. You know how divorced couples often squabble over who gets custody of the children?
I am familiar with that sad situation from such films as Kramer vs. Kramer. Right. Well this is kind of the opposite of that, because now three divorced parents have just won appeals against the law. At last they have won the right to stop paying maintenance and abandon their children to the local economy.
It’s tough love, I suppose. Less expensive love also. In one case, a father in Pontevedra was finally allowed to stop giving money to his 24-year-old son, who has worked a total of 40 days since leaving school in 2009.
That’s not very much work, I admit. But is this fair? Spain has the second-highest youth unemployment in the EU, at 45.3%, which is more than triple the rate in Britain. Finding work isn’t easy. That’s true, and it is a serious problem. It’s just that in this case the judge said that the young man’s failure to show “the proper application or dedication [to] studies or finding an occupation” might also have something to do with.
Judges are annoying, too. So it would seem.
Do say: “You treat this place like a hotel!”
Don’t say: “I’d like an alarm call at 2pm, and the continental breakfast.”
