Before coming to Ireland, I did some research on the history of the country as my prior knowledge was rather limited. But while reading about the past and modern history of Ireland, I found out that it had something in common with my homeland of Spain: specifically, both had experienced great migration flows between the 19th and 20th centuries, and became host countries for foreign labourers some decades later.
Just like Ireland, Spain experienced a decade-long boom from the late 1990s attracting millions of immigrant workers to occupy the new jobs that were being created. At that time, Spain had one of the oldest populations in Europe and one of the lowest birth rates in the world. The prosperity of the economy and the urgent need of labour made many migrants leave the deprivation of their home countries to settle in Spain, considered a new El Dorado just as Ireland was for other migrants.
The largest influx of immigrants came from Morocco, Latin America and Romania. Many found work in sectors such as construction and the domestic service industry, as well as in restaurants and hotels. They were supposed to do the jobs that Spaniards did not want, making a positive contribution to Spain’s economic success.
At the same time, the Spanish government became aware of a new challenge it had not had to face before: the dramatic increase in illegal immigration. In response, both conservative and socialist parties signed several regularisation schemes from the 1980s onwards legalising millions of irregular workers, an open-border policy which put Spain on the map as a country that welcomed immigrants despite the concerns of other EU states.
However, the sharp increase in the number of foreign workers in a very short period of time became a worrying issue in the last decade. The government was overwhelmed with the number of undocumented border crossings, and immigration became the main topic of political and social debates in the country.
The stories and images of thousands of African migrants risking their lives to reach the coast of Spain crowded onto small boats, and the involvement of criminal gangs in people trafficking, led to a reinforcement of immigration controls at borders and airports.
The large and uncontrolled arrival of immigrants was giving rise to resentment among Spaniards, who started to consider the negative side of this massive wave of irregular workers and to connect it with the increase in crime and abuse of the health and educational systems. Xenophobic attitudes became more evident as the media informed about scattered incidents of violence against foreigners.
One of the most recent controversies has been the anti-immigrant legislation in Vic, a small Catalan town near Barcelona. The local government proposed a polemic plan banning all undocumented migrants from registering as citizens of Vic, arguing that this measure would stop illegal immigration.
But unless Spain wants undocumented workers to continue to face exploitative and precarious working conditions, ‘solutions’ such as this are not appropriate. Spain needs to regularise those immigrants who suffer from discrimination and abuse and allow them to play a full part in society, not treat them like criminals. But reaching agreements with the governments of their origin countries is imperative in order to establish coherent migration policies as Spain, like any country, does not have a limitless social and labour capacity.
The recession has recently brought immigration into the spotlight in Spain and elsewhere, and is putting the issue of tolerance towards immigrants to the test. The irony of it all is that Spaniards, like the Irish, were once forced to seek a more dignified life abroad and to fight for their rights in their host countries. Have we all forgotten our own emigration past?
Nadia Mattar is currently on an internship with Metro Éireann
