Faced with a shortage of local labor in its countryside, Spain is turning to migrants to maintain its agricultural sector and rural areas, an opportunity seized by many Africans.

This is the case of Osam Abdulmumen, a 25-year-old Sudanese man who, after fleeing the war in his country, has been watching over a herd of 400 animals for months in Los Cortijos, a small Spanish village of 850 inhabitants.

Los Cortijos is emblematic of the hundreds of rural communities experiencing accelerated depopulation as a result of the rural exodus. Farms are finding it increasingly difficult to recruit shepherds.

"There's plenty of work for shepherds in Spain, but people don't like working in the countryside. I just want to work; it's the fastest job I could find," says the apprentice shepherd. Foreign labor is all the more appreciated since 81% of Spaniards now live in urban areas, compared to 59% in 1950, according to the Bank of Spain.

Alvaro Esteban, the owner, explains the difficulty of the situation: “It’s difficult to find people to work in the countryside. Most of the businesses that exist today won’t have successors because the children don’t want to follow in their parents’ footsteps. So you have to look for these people elsewhere. Often, outside the country. There are many people who come looking for opportunities to improve their situation. And here, what we’re ultimately doing is giving them that opportunity.”

To address this deficit and facilitate the professional integration of new arrivals, a government program offers training to migrants like Abdulmumen, whose local farms now depend on them for animal care.

"I'm currently taking a training course on animals: cows, sheep, goats. And I would be very happy to work in the campo (the countryside) with the animals," says Sharifa Issah, a Ghanaian student.

Since 2022, this program, funded by the regional government, has already trained around 460 students, mostly from immigrant backgrounds.