The tone of European migration policy is harsh. Dissuasive measures such as pushbacks, border controls and the suspension of European asylum rights are not only the subject of heated debate: they are already being implemented. Brussels is even experimenting with outsourcing asylum procedures to other countries, despite initial setbacks. Italy’s attempt to push asylum seekers into Albania, for example, has yet to bear fruit.

The situation is different in Spain. The country on the EU’s external border has become one of the main destinations for migrants arriving in Europe in recent years. With around 700,000 asylum requests since 2015it ranks among the top four countries with the most applications. Additionally, it has hosted more than 220,000 Ukrainian refugees. Every month, Spanish border authorities register an average of 5,000 undocumented border crossings.

Spain – and Europe as a whole – must decide whether it wants to remain “open and prosperous” or “closed and poor” in the future. he explained in a speech on asylum policy in the Spanish parliament and during conversations at the European summit on migration in Brussels.

Path to legalization for rejected asylum seekers

The socialist leader also campaigned for a reform of Spain’s immigration law, aimed at facilitating access to the job market for migrants and expected to come into force this year. Shorter deadlines for residence and work permits are planned, which will particularly benefit immigrant students, job seekers, families – and rejected asylum seekers.

Under the new regulations, rejected asylum seekers who have been living in Spain illegally for more than six months will have the opportunity to legalize their status by applying for a residence permit. It is not clear how many rejected people could benefit from this measure. At the end of 2023 alone, more than 60,000 rejected asylum seekers were still in Spain, despite being forced to leave the country.

This would be Spain’s second initiative to legalize undocumented migrants this year. In April, a large majority in Parliament voted in favor of a law that provides for the extraordinary legalization of up to 500,000 immigrants who arrived in the country before 2021.

Spain’s decision to permanently welcome hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants, even as European leaders push for stricter deportation policies, is driven by economic necessity, according to the government. The country has become the engine of European growth. Investments from the pandemic recovery and resilience plan, government subsidies for energy prices and a booming tourism sector are boosting the economy – the International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of just under 3%. for this year. .

The Sánchez government says immigration is necessary to counter the shortage of skilled workers and demographic change. The current unemployment rate of 11.8% remains silent. Although this is the lowest rate in 15 years, it remains the highest in the EU.

The Spanish know what immigration means

But economic factors are not the only motivation of the left government in favor of a more open migration policy: “We, the Spaniards, are the children of immigration, we will not be the parents of xenophobia,” he said. recently recalled Sánchez to parliamentarians. He was referring to the time when hundreds of thousands of Spaniards emigrated and sought a better life in other countries – whether during Franco’s fascist dictatorship or more recently after the severe economic crisis of 2012.

Just 10 years ago, more people emigrated from Spain than immigrated to the country. This is perhaps one of the reasons why the question of immigration is hardly perceived as a problem by the population. Surveys have shown for years that only a small percentage of Spaniards perceive migration as a major problem.

In the past, this sentiment only changed when Spanish border patrols in the Canary Islands or on the land border with Morocco reported a sharp increase in illegal border crossings. The biggest outcry came in 2006, when thousands of migrants from Senegal and Mauritania first arrived in Spain via Morocco. But the concern dissipated as soon as the government took action.

Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero negotiated agreements with Morocco to impose strict controls on land and sea borders. These agreements then became a model for the EU’s subsequent agreements with Turkey and Tunisia. Even under Pedro Sánchez, the border agreement with Morocco remains a central pillar of Spanish migration policy. Repressions have long been part of everyday life.

Welcoming Latin Americans, reluctant towards Africans

For Sánchez, immigration from Africa is a politically sensitive issue. Recent reports of high numbers of illegal border crossings from West Africa have led to a five-fold increase in the proportion of Spaniards who view migration as a major problem. In January, when the number of crossings was low, only 6% of Spaniards considered this a problem; by the beginning of October, this figure had risen to 30%. The Canary Islands are overwhelmed and a months-long dispute between the central government and Spain’s mostly conservative regional presidents over a fairer distribution of migrants, particularly minors, across the country.

However, African migrants play a rather minor role compared to overall immigration to Spain. The majority of migrants come from Latin America, including countries like Venezuela, Colombia and Honduras. They enter the country as tourists, seek asylum and often work in sectors with high labor demand, such as domestic serviceconstruction, agriculture and hospitality.

Migrants from former Spanish colonies are particularly well received – even by conservative circles and this, even if their asylum requests have been rejected and they can remain in Spain without papers. Even the far-right populist party Vox welcomes them. These migrants share a common language, culture, religion and history, underlines party leader Santiago Abascal. The situation is different with immigrants from African countries. The party developed the slogan “More walls and less moros”, or more walls and fewer Moors, an allusion to the Muslim Berbers and Arabs who occupied part of the Iberian Peninsula in the Middle Ages.

Unlike other far-right populist parties in Europe, Vox has yet to achieve resounding success in Spain with its anti-immigration slogans. In the last elections, the party received around 12% of the vote; In current pollsits popularity is around 10%. This places it in third position behind the conservative Partido Popular with 31.5% and the socialists of Pedro Sánchez with 34%.

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