The government tries to tackle unemployment by repatriating immigrants.
Gabriela Perdomo – It has been a challenge for Spaniards to adjust to the huge number of immigrants invited by the government to relocate over the past 10 years. As it is, Spain is today one of the world’s top destinations for immigrants from three main areas: Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Today, roughly 10 per cent of Spain’s population is foreign-born.
Gabriela Perdomo – It has been a challenge for Spaniards to adjust to the huge number of immigrants invited by the government to relocate over the past 10 years. As it is, Spain is today one of the world’s top destinations for immigrants from three main areas: Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe. Today, roughly 10 per cent of Spain’s population is foreign-born.
The rising tide of immigrants came about during a sustained period of economic growth, driven mostly by a construction boom and a well-organized program to attract foreign students into Spain’s many universities, colleges and institutes. A great number of the newcomers are also Asian and African men and women who risk their lives seeking asylum, arriving from Africa by boat to the Canary Islands and the ports of southern Spain. In 2006, Spaniards began to express concerns about this influx and the government’s response.
Last year, Spain’s economic boom turned to bust. An inflated real estate market collapsed—as had been expected for a while—at about the same time problems with sub-prime mortgages in the United States were being revealed. Official numbers show that a large proportion of those directly affected by the housing bust are immigrants, the vast majority of whom had come from South American countries like Bolivia, Colombia and Ecuador to work in the construction sector.
The domestic economic crisis, coupled with the global economic downturn caused by problems in financial markets, is quickly exacerbating a latent animosity against immigrants. The government’s new approach to this issue is hardly helping.
The government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which had introduced a regularization law that allowed thousands of undocumented immigrants to legalize their status in the country in 2004, launched a program in November 2008 which helps willing foreign unemployed workers return to their homeland. The voluntary repatriation initiative allows non-European Union (EU) citizens to collect their full unemployment benefits in advance as an incentive for them to leave Spain.
The number of foreigners who have adhered to this program is meagre—just about 2,000—but the effects of the policy are running deep. The Socialist Worker’s Party (PSOE) government that was once adamant in selling "the Spanish Dream" now runs the risk of sending the message that immigrants are not welcome anymore. Alfredo Pérez Rubalcaba, Spain’s interior minister, celebrated towards the end of last year, declaring, "In 2008, there have been more immigrants repatriated to more countries than in previous years. (…) Fewer of them come, and more of them leave, every day."
Because Spain’s immigrants are so diverse, irresponsible rhetoric like that of the interior minister should be restrained. Spain’s two most cosmopolitan cities, Madrid and Barcelona, are generally open to foreigners and treasure their cities’ diversity. Still, there are hundreds of anecdotal accounts of xenophobic episodes in both cities, mostly targeted against South Americans, or "Sudacas". This particular group of immigrants is large and diverse, but many South Americans are wrongly portrayed as dangerous or unlawful because some of their fellow countrymen and women have proven links to the international drug trade and other criminal activities.
On the other hand, the boatloads of poor asylum seekers arriving into Spain every week represent a major humanitarian crisis. Spanish authorities have been accused of human right abuses against men, women and children who cannot speak the language. Many are returned to their home countries without having the chance to apply for proper asylum.
Recent public opinion studies show that perceptions on immigration are already becoming particularly negative in Spain. A poll conducted by the Real Instituto Elcano last summer revealed that 46 per cent of Spaniards see immigration as an important threat to their country. Over a third of respondents to a Sigma Dos survey last August believe foreigners take jobs away from Spaniards. More recently, in a poll by the Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas, 44.7 per cent of Spaniards said that their ideal society is made with people who share the same origin and culture.
Facing one of the highest indices of unemployment in Western Europe (currently at 14.4 per cent, and predicted to reach up to 20 per cent by the end of 2009), Zapatero and his government are right to try every measure to appease the country’s sombre mood. But playing into the hands of those who blame the crisis on foreigners—a large number of whom were invited by the current administration to help build a prosperous Spain—is not only incredibly unfair but socially dangerous.
