Thread: Spanish regions seek to control immigration

Spanish regional governments (both left-wing and right-wing) are trying to do something with the mess Spanish federal government created. I think you Americans know something about such a situation


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AS ECONOMY SLUMPS
Spanish regions seek to control immigration


Agence France-Presse
First Posted 11:42:00 05/04/2008

The conservative government of Valencia, which includes the popular resort town of Benidorm, is drafting a law urging immigrants to sign an "integration contract" that commits them to respect local values and learn Spanish as well as Valencian, the local language.

Rafael Blasco, Valencia's councillor for immigration, said Tuesday that while contract would not be mandatory, not signing it would suggest "a desire not to integrate into our way of life."

"It could have consequences for the relationship between these people and the authorities and institutions," he told radio Cadena Ser.

Ruminahui, an organization that helps people from Ecuador, has denounced the measure, saying it hides a "buried campaign against immigration, that criminalizes it and blames it for problems not solved by the government."

The left-wing government of the northeastern region of Catalonia meanwhile unveiled plans on Monday to limit the number of immigrants enrolled in schools in each district as part of a regional education law aimed at avoiding the creation of ghettos.

The measure will apply to public schools and colleges in the region, whose capital Barcelona is Spain's second-largest city.

The regions are acting as Spain faces its first economic slowdown since it transformed itself over the past decade from a country of emigration to a magnet for immigrants, mainly from Spanish-speaking Latin America.

The number of immigrants living in Spain has soared from around half a million in 1996 to about 4.5 million, or 10 percent, of a total population of 45 million.

They were drawn by an economy that led job creation in Europe in recent years.

Many immigrants are employed to do manual tasks such as building houses, picking fruit, taking care of children or serving tables that native-born Spaniards no longer accept at any price.

But the economy began to cool last year, especially in the construction sector that employs large numbers of immigrants, as a once-buoyant housing sector was hit by rising interest rates and the global credit crunch.

The government predicts gross domestic product will rise 2.3 percent this year and next after growing 3.8 percent in 2007, with unemployment seen at 10 percent by the end of 2009 from 8.6 percent at the end of last year.

The "integration contract" proposed by the regional government of Valencia is similar to one called for by the main opposition conservative Popular Party (PP) in the run-up to a March 9 general election.

It was the first time in a Spanish general election that a major party made immigration a central issue.

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who was re-elected with a slightly bigger majority in a March general election, declared an amnesty in 2005 for about 600,000 illegal immigrants.

But his government is now proposing to provide microcredits to unemployed immigrants who want to return home.

It will also allow them to collect the monthly unemployment benefits which they are entitled all at once to help finance their return.

"Many of them will perhaps decide to return to their countries," Zapatero said Monday during an interview with public television TVE when asked about rising unemployment and the country immigrant population.

He recalled that countries such as Ecuador and Romania, key sources of immigrants to Spain, are encouraging their citizens to return home to make up for labor shortages or in the hope that they will invest in the local economy.

http://globalnation.inquirer.net/news/b ... mmigration

a law urging immigrants to sign an "integration contract" that commits them to respect local values and learn Spanish as well as Valencian, the local language

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What if the don't even understand the concept "sanctity of contract?"

Originally Posted by Captainron

a law urging immigrants to sign an "integration contract" that commits them to respect local values and learn Spanish as well as Valencian, the local language

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What if the don't even understand the concept "sanctity of contract?"

With this so called "integration" contract (not a legal contract anyway), there does not appear to be any penalties for breach of this so called "contract." Their understanding they must adhere to this integration contract probably doesn't matter much since there does not appear to be any consequences for failing to do so.

If these immigrants sign this integration contract and fail to integrate, are they going to be stripped of citizenship and deported? Based upon the facts, even if they sign this integration contract and then fail to adhere, then what.

Is Spain going to claim in 5 years they are no longer going to allow in immigrants from Latin Countries because they have in the past failed to live up to the integration contracts.

Im not really sure what this non-binding integration contract is going to accomplish. Countries have every right to control immigration at the front door and limit those who they grant admission to.

Re:

But the economy began to cool last year, especially in the construction sector that employs large numbers of immigrants, as a once-buoyant housing sector was hit by rising interest rates and the global credit crunch.

I wish they would have delved more into this problem in detail in the article.
Spain has it's own version of 'housing industry meltdown' or 'implosion' that is at least as severe as our own. And, in a strange but striking similarity, many of the people that were doing most of the construction jobs were also 'immigrants' (legal and illegal).

I wish they would have delved more into this problem in detail in the article.
Spain has it's own version of 'housing industry meltdown' or 'implosion' that is at least as severe as our own. And, in a strange but striking similarity, many of the people that were doing most of the construction jobs were also 'immigrants' (legal and illegal).

PhredE,
I'm sure that the construction industry in many, many countries--just as in the US--relies on a large number of foreigners. Construction is really a grubby business with a lot of informal agreements, violence and various strategies to elude governing authorities. And that is also why the illegal immigration wave in the US--as it spills into the construction industry--really makes me ill; it is just adding more trouble into a troubled field.

Having said that I think it is proper to have some admiration for people who do hard and dangerous work in the elements of nature. But the fat cat builders who control the teams of illegal alien craftsmen and walked to the bank with millions of profits deserve nothing better than the rest of their lives in prison, IMHO. The easy credit obtainable in this country--besides spawning construction projects--has also rapidly inflated home values. I guess if one is smart and lucky enough to get out at the top you win. Others could be plunging deeper into debt as the bubble pops. Yet those are the very same people who would be more likely to file bankruptcy. And they're crying for taxpayer sponsored relief. I just saw a news feature about foreclose homeowners who were taking valuable fixtures with them--and also inflicting serious damage out of spite.

My conclusion: This is more of the get in--get out mindset. And a very ugly chapter in US history.