Boomers, immigration and the handover of the neighbourhood bar

The boomers' bar and the handover nobody wants to see

The story sounds like a Social Security advert: a self-employed couple, two decades behind the bar, retire at 65 with the vvife on sick leave and crutches. Ten days later, the premises already have a tenant: a Latin American "new Spaniard" who opens longer hours than they ever did. The episode, told in full detail in a provincial capital, has stirred an uncomfortable debate about who will be left to keep small businesses running when the boomers call it a day.

Migratory pressure or plain capitalism

The readings could not be more opposed. Some see in this succession proof that the arrival of foreign population doesn't fill vacancies: it simply takes them over. The figure of eight million people in eight years is cited as a pressure factor, though without a single document to back it. Others, however, read it as the crudest form of capitalism: two self-employment contributions, a 1,500-euro rent and a worn-out body, and in the end the business goes to whoever works more hours for less.

The reckoning with the generation of '78

Beneath it all lies the generational clash: those who portray boomers as a generation that sold off their children's future, and those who remind them that this country emerged from misery precisely thanks to their work. In between, proposals as harsh as cutting pensions in half or boycotting migrant-run businesses. For now, none of them goes beyond shouting into a conversation. But the discomfort is real.

If this tension finds no outlet, the handover of neighbourhood businesses will keep sorting itself out: with new names on the sign, and the same retired self-employed workers gazing at their crutches on the park bench. The next generation may well enjoy the bar, but surely not at these hours.