They were! This trend kind of died out because of growth and enshitiffication, and I’m very glad to see it coming back here :)

As a Spaniard and former researcher myself, in Spain you can also move without learning Spanish, just apply to the offers in English in Barcelona or Madrid. Those are the best positions anyway. You will struggle more than in Denmark for sure without it, but it’s just because a lot of people speak very little or very poorly. In the big cities it’s much better though.

Long term I’d advise you to keep looking in the north of Europe, Spain is likely to fuck researchers over again as they did during the 2008 crisis.

I seriously considered it at some point, as in my (former) field many top researchers lived in Philly, New York, Boston + Toronto. Becoming a top researcher means travelling where other top researchers are. It was definitely not about money, pay is often equivalent between the EU and the US.

Eventually decided it was not worth it for me (had other priorities in life), but this is a sacrifice many EU researchers make (or should I say, made) to become top researchers.