Spain is experiencing an unprecedented demographic shift, with a historic increase in the number of immigrants, leading some sectors of the population to believe that their social rights are at risk, expert Carmen González told Euractiv.es in an interview.
The interview with González, senior researcher at Real Instituto Elcano, comes a few days after 4db published a survey for El País, according to which 57% of Spaniards believe there are ‘too many’ immigrants in the country.
“There is a trend towards greater concern on the part of Spanish society about the growing number of immigrants due to the very rapid evolution of the increase in immigration figures,” González told Euractiv.es.
In 2023, 8.8 million (18.1%) of Spain’s 48.5 million population were foreign-born, mostly from Latin American countries.
“We have (in Spain) a percentage of immigrants in relation to the population that is higher than in the United States – 46.2 million equivalent to 13.9% according to 2022 official statistics by the US census- and even higher than in many EU countries that have been receiving immigration for several decades (such as Germany or France),” the expert explained.
Migration in Spain growing too fast
“It is an accelerated process, socially very intense, unparalleled in the rest of the EU. The percentage of immigrants we have received in the last 25 years is among the highest in OECD countries,” said González.
The interview with González comes just weeks after the country’s most serious humanitarian crisis in recent years, with the massive arrival of immigrants off the coast of the Canary Islands and the Spanish enclaves of Ceuta and Melilla in North Africa.
Many analysts have described Ceuta and Melilla’s border with Morocco as the most unequal in the world in terms of GDP per capita, with €29,800 per year for Spain and €3,360 for Morocco, according to World Bank data.
“The exponential increase in the number of immigrants has had a direct effect on public services, which now have to cater for a much larger population without the state system having been redesigned. This affects health and all the social services that deal above all with the most vulnerable people”, González stressed.
In this sense, there is discontent among certain groups of Spanish-born citizens, and it is easier for the discourse that makes anti-immigration its main political banner to take hold,” the expert added.
“Far-right political parties feed this unrest, turning discontent into a priority electoral banner. It is a process that feeds back on itself,” stressed González, referring in particular to Vox (Patriots for Europe/PfE) and Alvise Pérez’s Se Acabó la Fiesta (SALF).
Left-wing parties harden the tone too
The challenge of immigration was one of the dominant themes of the European election campaign on 9 June, which saw historic gains for far-right parties, including the Alternative for Germany (AfD), or, more recently, the victory of Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ).
“The whole political spectrum (in Spain and the EU) is moving towards more restrictive positions on migration policy. It is not only the far-right or right-wing parties that are toughening their tone. It is a trend that is also noticeable in the centre camp, in socialist parties, or those very close to socialism,” said González.
In the expert’s view, Nordic countries – traditionally very open to immigration- seem to have failed in their integration policies, which has led to a hardening of the discourse and a rapid rise of the far right.
“The Swedish case is very clear. For many decades, Sweden was an example of welcoming policies towards refugees. But after many years, real integration problems have started to occur, especially in big cities,” said González.
In 2021, 20% of the Swedish population (two million people) were foreign-born, and 33% of the Swedish population had at least one foreign-born parent, according to the Swedish Statistics Office.
“Since the refugee crisis of 2015 in Europe, nothing has changed. The situation is as deplorable as it was that year. So the question is, how much do European societies want to invest in strengthening reception systems? Moreover, Europe has so far failed to successfully solve the challenge of integration,” he added.
(Fernando Heller | EuroEFE.Euractiv.es)
Source: euractiv.com
