Integration And Immigration Policy In Spain

Integration and immigration policy in Spain

Foreign migration in Spain is relatively recent, and so are the immigration policies. The first one, the Ley de Extranjería (Foreigners Law), was adopted in 1985 and it has remained as the base of the further developing regulation. At that time, the immigration levels were still low (250.000 legal foreign residents), so the law was basically implemented to comply with the requisites for Spain´s entry to the EU in 1986.

Nowadays, after two decades of rapid increase, there are 4.5 million of foreign residents (10% of the total population), which makes Spain one of the EU leading immigration countries. Growth has been more visible in regions as Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia, Murcia, Valencia and the Balearic and Canary Islands.

For most of the 20th century, Spain has been characterized by flows of internal migration and a tradition of international emigration, in both cases mainly rural-urban flows. Internally, rural people from Andalusia, Extremadura and Galicia tended to emigrate to Catalonia, Madrid and the Basque Country, the most industrialized areas. However, this trend was reversed in the mid-80´s, when Spain became an immigration destination.

Q: Which trends in Southern European countries as Spain influenced these countries to become immigration destinations in the mid-80´s?

Actually, given the economic restructuring, recession and high unemployment at that time, low wages were the only means for businesses to keep competitive, so there was a demand for cheap foreign labor which also motivated the immigration increase.

The immigration boom reached unprecedented levels in 2000 (from 57.195 foreigners in 1998 to 330.881 in 2000), coinciding with a booming Spanish economy driven by the housing market and the tourist industry. Today, according to 2012 data, the largest groups are Rumanians (895.970) and Moroccans (783.137), followed by British nationals (397.535), Ecuadorians (306.380) and Colombians (244.670). Coming from the EU-25, there is a significant migration of pensioners of North-Western Europe (UK and Germany) and a new immigration of low-skilled workers from Central and Eastern Europe (mostly Romania and Bulgaria).

Puesto País 2012 2001 2006

Total 5.711.040 1.370.657 4.144.166

1 Rumanía

895.970 31.641 407.159

2 Marruecos

783.137 233.415 563.012

3 Reino Unido

397.535 107.326 274.722

4 Ecuador

306.380 139.022 461.310

5 Colombia

244.670 87.209 265.141

6 Alemania

196.729 99.217 150.490

7 Italia

191.713 34.689 115.791

8 Bolivia

184.706 6.619 139.802

9 Bulgaria

176.216 12.035 101.617

10 China

175.813 27.574 104.681

Q: In your opinion, why are these the largest foreign groups in Spain? Why do you think the number of Rumanians has raised so much in the last years?

Evolution of Spanish immigration and integration policies. 4 phases:

*Mid-80´s –early 90´s:

1985 Foreigners Law: its main aim was to build a framework for legal support and to specify conditions of stay for foreigners in Spain, and ultimately to restrict entrance. Basically, it was aimed to comply with EU standards, so Spain could become a member in 1986. There was hardly any involvement of social, civic or economic actors in the drafting of the text. Since then, there has been a conflict between an externally (EU) induced restrictive policy and the economic situation in Spain, characterized by an increasing demand for unskilled labour. This continuous mismatch has resulted in the emergence of an irregular immigration model and the implementation of frequent regularization processes to surface ever-growing stocks of irregular migrants.

According to the Constitution, it recognized a set of fundamental rights (to life, freedom of expression, judicial guarantees) to legal and illegal foreigners. However, most political rights (as voting) were not applicable to foreigners.

As for Spanish nationality law, the criterion is more a jus sanguinis than a jus soli one, reflecting the legacy of Spanish emigration tradition. Foreigners can acquire Spanish nationality by residing legally for 10 years, although nationals from Brazil, Andorra, Portugal and former Spanish colonies are required only a 2-year legal residence.

*Most of the 90´s:

Almost all parliamentary groups agreed on adopting more integration measures

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