The snow is still lying in the park in the north of Madrid. But hundreds of Latin Americans brave the cold to come to this illegal market, the regular Sunday rendezvous for their community. Since the crisis hit, more and more of these women have been coming here to sell typical dishes they've cooked.

Marina, Ecuadorian seller: "I've got a job, but it's really badly paid. About 300 or 400 euros a month. That's why we work at the weekend, why we're here selling this food… To make ends meet."

In 2008, 623,000 immigrant workers were left unemployed. Times have changed. So has government policy. Non-European Union foreigners are being offered a deal: they can cash in their unemployment benefits for a lump sum of around 10,000 euros. In exchange, they go home and agree not to come back to Spain for at least three years.

But so far only 700 people in the whole of the country have been tempted to accept. For most Latinos, leaving is out of the question.

Raul Jimenez, Spokesman for the Ecuadroean association Ramiñahui:  "Lots of people have debts, loans taken out with banks, mortgages… And they have to be paid off. At first, people thought that if they took the subsidised return home and sold their apartment here, they'd have enough money to set up in business back in Ecuador. The problem is that the crisis is affecting everything: you can't sell an apartment at the moment, and so you can't pay off your debts."

In the Madrid suburb of Coslada, the Plaza del Sol is dubbed "Romania Square". After flooding into Spain en masse to work in the construction industry, these workers are now all unemployed. As European Union members, they're not being offered money to go home.

Florin, jobless worker:  "We'll stay here for a bit, see if we can find some work.  If not, we'll go back to Rumania." Eugeniu, jobless worker: "I need 300 euros a month for my daughter, who's a student. In Romania, my salary would only be 200 or 300 euros a month. So we're hanging on here in Spain for a while."

It remains to be seen whether the 800,000 Romanians living in Spain can hope for some breaks. Thanks to investment in their country, growth there is forecast at around 3.5% in 2009. Miquel Fonda, president of the association FEDROM: "There are between 60 and 80.000 unemployed Romanians in Spain. And half of them have already gone back to their own country".

Spain's unemployment rate could reach 15% of the working population this year. That's twice as high as it was in 2007 immigrant workers are the worst hit as jobs continue to dry up.