RESEARCH PROJECT

FOREGN IMMIGRATION IN SPAIN

PRINCE OVIEMUNO EKPOLO

TEACHER:
00/00/000

INDEX

1. INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................1
2. IMMIGRATION........................................................................................................... 3
2.1 Definition o meaning of the word immigration.......................................................3
2.2 Causes of the immigration....................................................................................4
2.3 The concept of Integration....................................................................................6
3. TYPES OF MIGRATIONS..........................................................................................8
3.1 Internal and external migrations...........................................................................8
3.2 Temporary and permanent migrations..................................................................9
4. HISTORY OF THE IMMIGRATION IN SPAIN..........................................................10
4.1 The need to design Integration policies..............................................................11
4.2 Labour incorporation and the current Economic crisis........................................12
5. THE OBSTACLES FOR THE IMMIGRANT..............................................................15
5.1 In the country of origin........................................................................................15
5.2 In the country of reception..................................................................................15
6.CONSEQUENCES OF THE IMMIGRATION.............................................................16
6.1 Demographic cosequences................................................................................16
6.2 Socio-cultural consequences..............................................................................17
6.3 Economic consequences....................................................................................18
6.3.1 Positive visions..........................................................................................18
6.3.2 Negative visions.........................................................................................19
7. THE POLITICS OF ASSISTANCE TO FOREIGNIMMIGRANTS OF SCARCE
RESOURCES..........................................................................................................20
7.1 Problems and needs of individuals and families.................................................20
7.1.2 The work....................................................................................................20
7.1.3 Housing......................................................................................................21
7.1.4 Education...................................................................................................22
7.1.5 Health........................................................................................................ 24

8. CONCLUTION......................................................................................................... 25

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................................................................................26
10. ANNEXES..............................................................................................................25

1. INTRODUCTION
The topic I chose for my research project is learning about the foreign
immigration in Spain, in a general way. I chose this topic because I thinkIt
seems interesting to analyze the current situation of these people when they
arrive in another country and also to know the degree of willingness, and
easiness of integration and adaptation of immigrants when they arrive in the
new country. Note that these people have to come and start a new life without
knowing anyone, where they have to change housing, adapt to a new climate.
From the beginning, Immigration has been a problem for the host society
Spanish, the focus has been on controlling the flow of immigrants and
combating illegal migration. Not because it is problematic to receive immigrants
in our country, but for the mass of the influx of immigrants. No one knows how
to fix this issue: if it comes to closing the door to immigrants who are coming
now, if its to choose which of these immigrants can be established in the
country and those that cannot, if its to be divided among different countries, if it
is to take them back directly to their country of origin or welcome them with
open arms.
In my research project I am not trying to find out a solution to the problem of
immigration, but to learn about immigrants that come to our country because
the situation that they are is very different from the people in the host country.
Therefore, limitations with regard to the information I have not found too much,
although it was difficult to select the information to ensure that it is clear and
understandable. But I have had more problems with the time since I have
entertained myself in doing other things and I neglected the research work.

Objectives
As I have said before, the objectives of my research project consist in learning
about the foreign immigration in Spain and the social conditions and labor life of
the immigrants.
I wanted to treat immigration from the social area, thematically focus on the
human point of view, so as of the immigrant people and the population of the
city, to be able to know how the immigrants feel here, what relations do they
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maintain with the non-immigrant people of his locality of reception, in what

difficulties they are, what intentions they have with regard to their future, if they
want to remain here permanently or only temporarily, and what would they like
to know from here and what not, what they feel living here.

After I have raised these issues, I realized that a research project on

immigration can be quite complex if you study it from all areas such as
economic, political, social, etc. So as I got the idea of how the research would
be, I started to work on it.
Later I focused on the practical part of the research which includes surveys to
immigrants from the two neighborhoods in the city of Tarragona, one of which I
live Campoclar and the other Torreforta (Torreforta Institute) in which I am
studying.
Methodology
To be able to find the information I had to consult several sources of Internet
(Google, Wikipedia, articles, books, etc.).
First of all, I started with the introduction and secondly I find all the information
about immigration, the causes, consequences, migratory movement, etc.
Finally the practical part of my project, which includes the interview to the
immigrants students and parents asking about their decision to migrate, and
their first impressions of this country.

2. IMMIGRATION
2.1 Definition o meaning of the word immigration
Collecting information from different bibliographic sources: dictionaries, web
pages, books. We could say that the currently understood meaning for the word
immigration can be the following:
Immigration is the entrance to a country of people born or comes from
elsewhere. It represents one of the two options or alternatives of the
word migration, which is applied to the movements of people from one place
to another and that these transfers involve a change of residence either
temporary or permanent.

The two options of the migratory movements are: emigration, which is the
departure of people from a country, region or determined place to go to a
different one and immigration, as I have said before that is the entry into a
country, region or determined place proceeding from other parts.

2.2 Causes of the immigration

Migrations constitute a highly complex demographic phenomenon that responds
to various causes and very difficult to determine, especially due to irregular or
disguised tourism activities or other migrations, quantitative data are difficult to
obtain. We cannot understand the present migrations if we don't analyze the
causes which push these people to immigrate.
The main causes of the migratory movements can be summarized in the
following:

Political causes
Refer to the causes resulting from political crises that usually occur in
certain countries. Many people who fear political persecution and
revenge are leaving a country to take up residence in another or, at least,
try to leave it, but often they might even lose their life when it comes to
totalitarian regimes.

Cultural causes
The cultural basis of a given population is a very important factor when
deciding which country or place is going to migrate. Culture (religion,
language, traditions, customs, etc.) has too much weight in the
decision. The educational possibilities are very important in deciding
migration from one place to another, to the point that in the rural exodus,
this factor is often decisive since those who migrate from rural to urban
tend to be young adults, which are more likely to have small children.

Socio-economic causes
They are the fundamental causes in any migration process. In fact, a
direct

relationship

immigration

and,

between
therefore,

socio-economic
between

development

and

underdevelopment

and

emigration. Most of those who migrate do so for economic reasons,

looking for a better standard of living. The situation of hunger and misery
in many developing countries forces many migrants to risking their life
(and even lose it many times), just to get out of their situation.
4

Family causes
Family ties are also an important factor in the decision to migrate,
especially in more recent times, where any emigrant from some
underdeveloped country, need a lot of help to settle in another country's
greater economic development, also the economic causes as money,
work and economic.

War causes and other international conflicts

They constitute a real source of forced migrations, which have resulted in
massive displacement of the population, fleeing from extermination or the
persecution of the country or armies.

Generalized disasters
The effects of large earthquakes, floods, prolonged drought, cyclones,
tsunamis, epidemics and other disasters both natural and social (or a
combination of both, which is much more common) have caused large
displacements of human beings (we could also consider them as forced
migration) during all periods, but which have been worse in recent times
by the growth of the population and occupation of areas of highest risk of
occurrence of such disasters. A low intensity earthquake, for example,
can be very destructive in underdeveloped areas with shantytowns and
without a major social and economic organization; while others are
culturally more advanced and more developed countries, another
earthquake of the same intensity may have almost no negative
consequence in terms of the infrastructure of the country and the loss of
life.

Financial and Better Future Prospects

People migrate to gain financial stability and better prospects for the
future. In their country of origin, there are no jobs or the jobs are poorly
paid and are not allowed to maintain the lifestyle they want. Very often,
parents want a better life for their children than what they had. They do
everything possible to offer their best, but the best is not good enough,
given the circumstances.
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If another country is offering better forecasts, higher wages and a

polished lifestyle, any person could think of immigrating to that country.
That is when immigration is the perfect answer to their concerns.

Education

Other countries present a huge range of educational opportunities. Either

a first-class university, secondary school, university, professional institute
or whatever, students can get themselves enrolled in any of them
according to their levels of preference, free from prejudice socioeconomic and political.

2.3 The concept of Integration

When a person makes a migratory movement from a country to another one, as
I have mentioned before, it is called immigrant. This immigrant arrives at his
new host country and start to live in it, along with the people who already live
there. Referring to the hypothesis of the work, when trying to discover in what
degree the immigrants are integrated in the society of the host country raises a
question: What is integration?
We could understand integration in many ways and surely there would be
probably thousands, but if we take two from the most radical positions we could
say that integration means:

To assimilate totally the culture of the host country, making the

immigrants to leave their own ancient customs and traditions and focus
on learning and interested only in how to live and act in the population of
the host country.

Just to adapt on unnoticed way and not to disturb the society where
they are living. Obey the laws established, look for a job, pay taxes, dont
look for problems and not to invade the society that already lives.

Many times we blame immigrants for their lack of integration, interest and effort.
Everyone who has immigrated, are making an effort to adapt to the new
situation in which they are.

3. TYPES OF MIGRATIONS

We can classify migrations from two points of view; from the perspective of the
country of origin we can distinguish between internal and external migrations.

3.1 Internal and external migrations

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Internal migration
Internal migrations are those that occur in the country of origin. The
effects that have caused these migrations has been the concentration of
population in urban centers since there has been a shift from the
countryside to the city. Immigration has been placed permanently and
peoples have suffered much loss of population, especially young, staying
in many cases abandoned or with very ageing population. This happened
in Spain in the 1960s and the immigration headed the industrialized
areas of the periphery and Madrid. The consequence of this type of
immigration is the imbalance in population density .

External migration

We find external migrations when the displacement that occurs has as

target another country of origin. This type of external migration on a
voluntary basis has the search for better conditions of life and work as a
common feature.

The other point of view to classify migrations is based on the time in which the
migrant is maintained in society of destination; so I am going to talk about
temporary and permanent migration.
3.2 Temporary and permanent migrations

Temporary migration
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Temporary migrations are being organized in periods of different

amplitude, but they have the characteristic that is returned to the place of
origin.

These immigrations can occur inside the country or outside. Outside the
country include seasonal migrations: mowing, harvest, crops ... So in
1954, during the months of April and may, a large number of Spaniards
immigrated to France to perform tasks related to the production of rice
and sugar beet, and from 1960 onwards highlights Spanish immigration,
also towards France for the harvest. These immigrations seasonal are
called "golondrina" since it does not remain in the host country rather
than the necessary time that lasts the work that immigrants perform and
then return to their countries of origin.

Permanent migration

Permanent migrations are characterized because the migrant is

maintained permanently in the country of destination.

An example of this type of the recipient country of immigration was Argentina in

the early 20th century. The Spanish language and culture have been very
supportive to migrate to Argentina.

4. HISTORY OF THE IMMIGRATION IN SPAIN

Considering that Spain has gone from a country of emigration to one of

immigration only in the mid-eighties, the history of Spanish immigration is
recent, but intense. It was not until the beginning of the present decade that the
foreign population residing in Spain surpassed the number of Spanish living
abroad. The change came about, in the first place, due to the return of the
Spanish population from abroad, initially from Europe and more recently, from
Latin America. In the second place comes the arrival of foreigners from Europe,
and thirdly, the entrance of low-income country nationals, especially Africa, Latin
America and Eastern Europe, into the Spanish labour market. Thus the foreign
population in Spain has, especially in the last few years, grown considerably.
Yet, it is not only the numbers that are changing, but also populations origins
and distribution around the country.
According to data from the Ministry of Labour and Immigration, 4,710,757
foreigners were either registered or had valid residence permits as of 30 th
September 2009. These accounts for around 10% of the total population, but if

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we either consider municipal census data, which does not require valid legal
documents, the figures increase to 5,598,691.
38% of the immigrant population comes from the European Union, of which
Romania is the most important country with 728,580 people; 30% are from Latin
America, of which Ecuador is the most important with 441,455, followed by
Colombia with 288,255; and 20% are from Africa, with the most numerous
group from this continent coming from Morocco with 758,174 residents.
Insofar as destinations, 67% of immigrants are concentrated in four
autonomous regions: Catalua (21%), Madrid (20%), Andalusia (13%) and
Valencia (13%). The rest of the regions have lower percentages, with the most
important in Canarias (6%), Murcia (5%) and Baleares (4%). This demonstrates
one of the main characteristics of immigration in Spain, namely, its highly
concentrated geographic density.
The arrival of the foreign population has also had direct consequences on the
demographic structure. For example, this immigration leads to a change in the
composition of the age and sex of the population, both in the configuration of
the family (mixed marriages) and birth rate.
Spanish and foreign, especially non-European Union, population age pyramids
also have different profiles. The Spanish are older, with 29% over 54 years of
age compared to 5% of non-European Union foreigners. However, these
differences disappear in younger (under 20) groups. All of this leads to another
differentiating aspect, the proportion of the active population. Whereas 63% of
Spaniards are of work age, 77% of non-European Union foreigners are. With
regard to sex, the Spanish female population is slightly larger than the male
(51% and 49%, respectively), whilst the proportion of foreign males to females
is larger, 54% compared to 46%.

4.1The Need to Design Integration Policies

The consolidation of immigration in Spain and its presence in different spheres,
such as the educational, residential, labour, associations, etc., makes it
necessary to incorporate integration and design strategies that make it as least
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conflict as possible. This task falls into the hands of the central government,
which is in charge of legislating anything affecting the foreign population and
immigration phenomenon (such as laws on foreigners and regulations for their
application). Their responsibilities include border control, regulating entries and
exits, accepting or refusing applications for asylum and refugees, designing
contingencies and setting labour quotas by sector and region, signing bilateral
agreements with other countries, and seeking governmental formulas for
access to the Spanish labour market (with Ecuador, Colombia, Morocco, the
Dominican Republic, Poland and Romania). Further duties are repatriations
agreements (with Nigeria), visas, etc., designing national plans for integration
(such as the GRECO Plan, in 2001, or the Strategic Plan for Citizenship and
Immigration] drafted in 2006). In any case, some of the most important actions
carried out by the Spanish Government has been massive legalization
processes, the creation of a Forum for Immigrant Integration, and putting the
policies or directives designed by European Union into practice in the national
territory (under the Schengen agreements, the Amsterdam Treaty, the Council
of Tampere and others as they are adopted). The Spanish state, and the
administrations in power since the early 1990s, have conceived of immigration
as a permanent phenomenon, and have developed a series of political and
administrative instruments for its regulation.

4.2 Labour Incorporation and the Current Economic Crisis

With respect to the relationship between migration data and the Spanish labour
market, the situation of foreign workers in the various labour sectors show their
incorporation in the secondary market where manual labour is important.
Foreigners are found mainly in four sectors, according to data from the National
Institute of Statistics Survey of the Active Population for the last quarter of 2008:
construction (23.6%), agriculture (21.2%), services (13.6% of employment) and
industry (10.7%).
The largest demand for labour in the construction sector has allowed the
absorption of both native workers from other sectors of activity, especially
agriculture, and immigrants. However, the dynamic activity that characterizes
12

the construction sector does not translate into stability for the workers. One of
the characteristics of the construction sector is its marked instability, which is
determined by economic cycles. Thus, dependence on investment has direct
repercussions on the creation of jobs and on the characteristics required of
labour employed such as flexibility, intra and inter-sector mobility, etc. The
heavy specialization of jobs to be done must also be mentioned, as it leads to a
strong division of production and atomization of businesses, here the
immigrants occupy, once again, the most precarious positions. Although it is
true that, they are beginning to gain access to this type of employment, it is
menial labour requiring little or no qualifications, weak contract regulation, and
its highly precarious nature, lack of safety and hygiene, seasonality and
mobility.
In agriculture, the immigrant is a wage earner whereas the more qualified
positions, such as supervisors, agricultural engineers, etc., Are reserved for
native laborers. Therefore, instead of competition between native and immigrant
labour, we need to speak of substitution in this sector. In the end, competition
can only be related to the wages between legalized and illegal immigrants since
these last ones are not generally well paid.
With regard to the service sector, domestic help, characterized by being heavily
female, should be stressed. Integration of Spanish women on the labour market
is bringing about a need to employ immigrant women in the private sector to
carry out housework, cleaning, and childcare, and to care for old people, etc.,
In the hotel and restaurant sector, in spite of the growing importance of tourism
and service in the Spanish economy, the proportion of immigrant workers is not
very high. On one hand, it is the sector in which most native workers are
employed, and on the other hand, reliable statistics are difficult to find because
of the high rates of irregular employment.
In any case, the differences are found among immigrants relating to the
individuals nationality. In fact, Eastern Europeans and Latin Americans are
acquiring access to this sector faster than Africans, again there is ethnic
discrimination that leads African immigrants, in general, to be employed in
agriculture.

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Moreover, the hotel and restaurant subsector is characterized by strong

seasonality, which has caused the existence of two large labour segments,
namely workers with stable employment, and seasonal workers who depend on
the requirements of tourism and are hired either on a contract basis or parttime. The heterogeneity of the sector leads to a multiplicity of jobs that range
from highly qualified (managers, human resources, administration, etc.) to
unqualified (cleaning, maintenance, kitchen help, etc.).
All of the sectors in Spain in which immigrants are integrated are characterized
by a higher frequency to be an employee.
It is obvious that immigrants occupy the most changeable, precarious and
unstable jobs on the Spanish labour market. Furthermore, they are employed by
an underground economy which, for many workers, is the only way to earn an
income either because they cannot find legal employment or because they are
not legalized themselves. It is precisely the immigrants who become the ideal
source of labour for an informal economy since their legal situation, their need
to work, or the peculiarities of the market makes them accept jobs that are
refused by native workers.
In the current economic crisis, Spain is going through more difficulties coming
out of it than other developed countries. The construction industry, which was
the main cause of the recession, has led to the loss of the payments of
thousands of people into the social security system, the most being the
immigrant population (among whom it has lost around 85% of its membership).
Generally, the crisis has also meant a new outlook on the situation of
immigrants in Spain, on enforcement of the laws governing the foreign
population, and the design of policies for their return. There are two programs
for assisting immigrants to return to their homes with public funding. Several
different organizations take part in the first, which has been operating since
2003 and was initiated by the Ministry of Labour and Immigration and the
International Organization for Migration (IOM). A second program was started
up in 2008, coinciding with the economic crisis, to help unemployed foreign
workers with the right to collect unemployment payments to return home. The
economic future of immigrants in Spain, the adaptation of the second
generation and the success or failure of integration policies are yet to be seen.
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5. THE OBSTACLES FOR THE IMMIGRANT

Leave a country or place to establish themselves in another has never been an

easy undertaking for groups or individuals, but on the contrary, has always
presented innumerable obstacles, not only in the country of entry, but also in the
country of origin before the departure of the same.

5.1 In the country of origin

In the country, of origin of the immigrant usually exist certain legal problems to
emigration, largely created by the respective Government, which is avoid the
departure of emigrants, especially because the vast majority of them tend to be
young adults in age of work and contribute to the development of the country or
to the objectives set by the Government itself. For immigrants the option to
abandon their culture, family and country for an uncertain future is a
psychologically difficult decision. Only the socket to the impossibility of obtaining
a future in their country of origin before the unemployment and lack of economic
opportunities.

5.2 In the country of reception

In each country, the obstacles to the entry of immigrants are much clearer and
have multiple facets, both by the respective Governments by the inhabitants of
the country and even other immigrants already established, especially if they
come from different countries. Those who come in the host country have to be
integrated in the new country; first labor with a legality in permissions,
identification, social security and education, at the same time culturally; the new
language when it is different from yours, and in any case they must take new
customs and ways of life. They must adapt to their customs. The adaptation of
15

the children. Cultural diversity, languages and religions, can sometimes be

rewarding, can also be creator of serious conflicts in other cases. The problems
of many immigrants are due to that the State of origin does not give them
always needed guidance; so those who are determined to leave their countries
falling into the hands of people who are dedicated to the mafia.

6. CONSEQUENCES OF IMMIGRATION IN SPAIN

Migrations affect both territories of origin that lost population and territories of
destination, which wins it. This population transfer can be felt in different social
and economic aspects of both territories. The most important are the following:

6.1 Demographic consequences

The most striking consequence of the immigration in Spain has been the
increase in the population: thus, between 1998 and 2005 Spain had grown in
4.255.880 inhabitants, which represents a growth of 10,68% of population in
seven years. The greater part of this figure is due to the massive influx of
immigrants during this period.
In addition, the higher birth rate of the immigrant population is the main cause of
the rise in fertility that has occurred in the country, going from a crude birth rate
of 9, 19 10, 73 between 1998 and 2005. In 2005, 15,02% of births
registered in Spain were the work of women of foreign nationality, although the
only foreign it is 8,46% of the Spanish population and 10.64% of women in
childbearing age residents in Spain.

On the other hand, as the greater part of the population that immigrates usually
has between 25 and 35 years, growth is higher in this age group and therefore
the Spanish population is rejuvenated. Thus, 51,91% of foreigners living in
Spain has between 20 and 39 years, against 32,66% of the total population of
Spain found in this age group.

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Instead the country of origin age to stay get older population troop, which
already do not procreate. So therefore in destinations increases birth and
decreases mortality, as opposed to in the origin.
An important effect is the imbalance of gender since they tend to migrate more
men than women, so at the place of destination is no greater proportion of men
and in the origin of women (also the otherwise occurs when women are those
who migrate).
Another consequence would be the disproportionate growth of cities hosting
migrants from the rural environment to the population. All the effects described
in this section to be target of internal migrations are observed in cities.

6.2 Socio-cultural consequences

The arrival of immigrants in recent years has generated a greater cultural,
religious and linguistic diversity.

cultural: The migrations provide the diffusion of different cultures across the
world. In the case of Spain the majority arrival of immigrants proceeding from
cultural or linguistic nearby areas (75,02 % proceeds or of Latin America or of
other countries of the European continent), joined to that the immigration is of
varied origin, can stop guess an integration less problematic than the one
produced in other countries of the European Union.
Historically Migrations have served for the diffusion of technical advances,
crops, etc. To other parts of the world, as they did Greeks, Romans and Arabic
in Mediterranean.

Social: Lack of integration of the emigrants in the destination, due to a very

large cultural differences, as the language, Religion, etc. Uprooting of the
emigrants of the places of Origin, due on one hand to the lack of habitual
contact, and for other one to an attempt of Integration excessive that makes it
loses his signs of identity. In the host societies often arise feelings of rejection
17

towards the emigrant, a study proceeding from the Ministry of labour and
Immigration of Spain indicates that in the last years it has increased the general
trend to the rejection of the population born abroad, that is to say, the increase
of the xenophobia.

6.3 Economic consequences

6.3.1 Positive visions
The important arrival of immigrant population in age of working has a positive
impact in the total of affiliations to Social Security, to the point that nearly 45 %
of the discharges registered between 2001 and 2005 were corresponded to
foreign workers.
Since almost half of the work created in these years has been nourished by
foreign workers, their contribution to the growth of GDP in the five years (3.1%
annual average, in real terms) would have been very significant.

In addition, the increase of the labour population has brought an increase in

revenue associated with the imposition of work (mainly through social security
contributions). However, the low percentage of the dependent population (less
than 15 years and more than 65 years, which is 18,98% for the foreign group,
but 30.83% for the general population) makes to contribute in a clear way to
the box of the State more than the national population.
On the other hand, given that the foreign employment has centered principally
in sectors where the national labour supply turns out to be scanty (construction,
household employees, hospitality, agriculture, etc.), Immigration has contributed
to soften the rigidity of this offer, limiting the appearance of inflationary tensions
and making small Spanish companies continue their activity.
The fact that the immigrant population occupies less desirable labor positions
for the Spanish population and the fact that it is a young population, it has
18

allowed that, at the same time the Spanish occupy higher positions in the labour
pyramid that young people could have access to more formation that the
women can access in greater number to the labor market and in general to that
the Spanish welfare state continues stable.
A great advantage for the country of origin is that migrants send part of their
salaries in foreign currency, with which produces an important income for the
economic development of these countries (example of this occurred in the
Middle decades of the 20th century in Spain, in which remittances from
emigrants, together with revenues from tourism helped balance the negative
balance of payments, on the other hand in the source decreases unemployment
to leave part of the active population to other places to work.
6.3.2 Negative visions

Have been raised, also, opinions that argue that immigration has led to
distortions in the Spanish labor market. Thus, though the Spanish GDP has
grown between 3 % and 4 % between the years 1997 and 2007, The real
wages of the Spanish population not only have not increased, but they have
decreased slightly. Indicating that the arrival workers, allegedly not qualified has
pulled to low the wages in various sectors of the Spanish economy such as
construction, and hospitality.
On the other hand, good parts of the works assumed by the immigrants have
been created to the heat of the so-called housing bubble: About 30 % of the
workers of the construction are foreigners.
Another effect is the excessive increase of the cities, in many occasions
increase the population at a faster rate than the growth of housing and
infrastructure, so that newcomers should stay where they can, emerging areas
of slums in urban peripheries (especially in those cities in underdeveloped
countries that grow very quickly).
So, what immigration would have allowed could be the lowering of the
production cycle in the Spanish traditional economy by making it unnecessary
to undertake modernization projects and Research and development, due to the

19

investment would not be necessary since it is able to maintain profits by

reducing wages. The main negative presumptions assume that:

The phenomenon might have harmed the worse paid workers, due to an
increased supply of workmanship socially undervalued by their labour
qualification.

The increase of the economic benefits have not been invested in

improving the productive cycle within traditional companies.

7. THE POLITICS OF ASSISTANCE TO FOREIGN IMMIGRANTS

OF SCARCE RESOURCES

The problems that foreign immigrants face are related to the adaptation to the
conditions of the labor market, which in Spain has a strong informal sector, and
also to the access to housing, education and health care. From an individual or
household perspective the needs of foreign immigrants are similar to those of
the other less privileged groups in the country. Another question is to consider
the needs of the economy in general, the needs of the State or of those related
with the local environment where immigrants live and work. If we approach the
topic of foreign immigration it implies that we question fundamental aspects of
the way of life, or the economic and political organization of the country.
7.1 Problems and needs of individuals and families
The importance that has recently acquired in Spain, the phenomenon of
immigration of foreign nationals raises problems hitherto unknown in our
country, for this reason there is a special interest in knowing those raised in
other European countries and at different scales, from rural areas to the
metropolitan areas, regions and the whole of the State territory.
From the perspective of today's meeting, we can say that the problems
encountered by foreign immigrants in Spain have to do with adaptation to the
conditions of the labour market and the requirements to have decent, similar to
the nationals living conditions. These problems can be easily listed: relate
essentially to work, housing, education, health and living together.
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7.1.2 The job

First and foremost, immigrants have to find a job. Which requires the existence
of a demand and transparent information on opportunities in the labour market,
which is not always given. The growing tendency to offer temporary work,
informal work and precarious contracts like domestic and foreign. Problems that
may arise are derived of the legal situation and, in particular, the existence of
undocumented immigrants without papers, which they put at the mercy of
unscrupulous employers and mafias.

7.1.3 Housing

The other big problem is that of access to housing for rent or property. These
popular groups, as well as nationals of few resources, have to deal with very
often forms of substandard housing. To this must be added, in the case of
immigrants, the added difficulties arising from the rejection of their behavior,
their cultural practices or their ethnic traits may have other neighbors, and the
problems of coexistence that this raises, of which I'll discuss later.
The market of housing is like the labour one - very little transparency, at least in
Spain. The indigenous population has many difficulties in accessing housing,
which is very expensive. There is currently a policy construction of public
housing rent or access to housing for popular groups. According to a recent
study, only one of every 25 homes new construction in Catalonia has official
protection, and the increase in the price of housing is rampant: has increased
35 percent since 1998, i.e. in only four years. It is important, therefore, qualify
demonstrations that sometimes made about exclusion that are the subject of
immigrants on the social policies of access to housing, and the consequences
of this on their marginality. This is, in fact, a more general problem. Facilitate
access to housing of the popular groups, including immigrants who need it,
means a policy of construction of social housing or public housing by the State
and strong support for social housing built by private initiative.
21

The problem is especially large in Spain because the proportion of rental

housing is the lowest in Europe: only 14 per cent is for rent and only 2 per cent
may be considered social rental, with figures higher in all other European
countries. It is joined by a large number of empty houses in various situations
(ruinous in expectation for the children as an investment, for use of second
homes or rental during the summer...). A right to such housing tax would
certainly stimulate release to the market.
The problems faced by immigrants to rent flats are large. Contracts of
employment, payrolls, reports, progress and bank guarantees by owners is a
standard practice which affects all those who intend to rent a flat in major
Spanish cities, and especially to young people, and no doubt they aggravate
when the candidate is an undocumented immigrant or non-regularized. That is
why requests from associations of immigrants to receive public aid to rent flats
are legitimate. Some accompaniment to facilitate access to housing is needed.
In particular, we can imagine putting up programs well structured and equipped,
beyond voluntarism of NGOs and social organizations; programs, for example,
establishing procedures for the granting of guarantees by public or private
institutions, both in the case of access to rental housing for the obtaining of
mortgage loans for the purchase.
It is also possible to imagine putting up utilities reception and orientation of the
immigrants, so arriving they depend not only relatives, friends and mafias in the
information on access to housing.

7.1.4 Education

With regard to the education of children, the problems are also similar to those
presented to the children of all classes. There is a school needed that is
effective and educated for coexistence, which usually means a public school
resources and quality, secular and religious education. This does not exist in
Spain.

22

Said that, it is necessary to add that the immigrants children may require an
additional educational effort for the problems of language or of the familiar
cultural environment, which requires an additional strength and activities
reinforcement. All the other problems you can imagine (content of the programs
of study and text books) are similar to those raised for the general education
system.
If high school drop-out figures that exist in the Spanish education system have
been repeatedly denounced for years, we can imagine that the situation can be
much more serious for children of foreign immigrants with adaptation and
language problems.
Anyway, are also referred to many cases of families of immigrants very
structured and with desire to succeed that make a substantial and successful
effort for the education of children, which sometimes can arouse the envy and
the rejection of dysfunctional Spanish families and children who fail in their
studies.
There may be an additional problem, which refers to the adult education for a
better adaptation to the new medium of reception (particularly the language).
These issues must be resolved in the framework of general of adults, but with
the corresponding pedagogical strengthening education.
Specific problems may also exist with regard to immigrant women and children.
Immigrant women are more numerous and can come from cultural fields that
are in a situation of inferiority or segregation, unacceptable for our legal system
and our customs. It is necessary to ensure equal opportunities. In this sense
migration is often a possibility of liberalization of women since it gives it an
important role in the strategies of family resources. The question of prostitution
and sexual exploitation or domestic violence is issues that can arise for all
women without distinction, and don't need special treatment different from the
general legal framework.
It comes to immigrant children; problems only arise when they arrive without
family. The so-called street children have always existed in large cities. This

23

problem can now relate to the existence of dysfunctional families or who they
shamelessly exploit children.
But it is similar to which has been able to in the past. It may be significant to
have a historical perspective text on this problem:
In a populated city (...) is remarkable the number of boys completely abandoned
by their families, foundlings in large part, living without occupation, walking
Street , sleeping in the open, in the porches seats, at the tables of the markets,
or below the boats of the pier, and all these creatures by his abandonment its
kind of life, their physical and moral misery, are inevitably destined to live years
and months in jail or prison; generally are conducted often to the Town Hall, in
the Dungeon they spend a day or two, but those who do not can be processed
because the facts of takes charge or have importance or have not been
provided in the criminal and last code already the period of detention pure and
essentially administrative (though in the illegal Fund) there is no other resource
that put them at liberty to return a few days, sometimes hours, to be arrested for
similar offences.
Another thing is the subject of children arriving alone, without family. Under
them there policies of reception and repatriation, as well as thinking about the
necessary equipment for your attention.
7.1.5 Health

Foreign immigrants should have the right to health care under the same
conditions as the Spaniards. Equal footing means subject to the same general
system of Social security contributions, and with the possibility to join mutual
private sanitary.
Special problem raised certainly illegal immigrants. They have to study carefully
the measures to take, and I think that in this regard will be very interesting
experience and solutions to other European countries.

24

One thing is clear however, it refers to health care. The increasing mobility of
the population (tourism, business, migration) presents new and serious health
problems, which will require an in-depth reform of our health system.
The dissemination of tropical infectious diseases and the "return of epidemics",
is a new situation to which the health system is not sufficiently prepared.

8. CONCLUSION
At the time of doing the job I learned a lot about Immigration, because the
subject of immigration attracted me from the very beginning and i intended to
discover more details on this subject: how do immigrants feel in our society,
which or what are the difficulties do they have in the society, are they welcome,
are they integrated in our society, etc.; and I think I have learned many things.
When i started the work i didnt have any idea from where to start from. But
finally when I started searching for information about immigration a lot of idea
came in to my head. I know understand more about the situation of the
immigrants in our society.
Immigration is a large topic, which has been given since the beginning of
humanity, and that the causes and consequences have changed considerably
with the passage of time.

Although Immigration has been a problem for the Spanish host society. Not
because it is problematic to receive immigrants in our country, but for the mass
of influx of immigrants.
Most of the local workers are complaining about immigrants because they are
removing them from their job, and the problem is that if we drove the immigrants
out of our society, how is the country economic going to grow? Because i
25

learned that the immigrant do hard jobs that the local workers does not do, in
some cases they are forced to do the job, but on the other hand they are not
forced to do the job they voluntary do it, because they have to feed their family.
I think what i have proposed to do from this work, i have got it, in general i
didnt have any problem in doing the work, the only problem i had is to
organize the information so that people will understand what i am talking
about and also the introduction and conclusion and bibliography because i
didnt remembered all that i had search for.

9. BIBLIOGRAPHY

WEB

CAPEL, H. Las polticas de atencin a las necesidades de los inmigrantes extranjeros de

escasos recursos. Scripta Nova. Revista electrnica de geografa y ciencias sociales,
Universidad de Barcelona.[ISSN: 1138-9788], vol. VI, nm. 117.[Consultado: 1 de julio de
2002]. Disponible en internet:http://www.ub.es/geocrit/sn/sn-117.htm
ScriptaNova. Revista Electrnica de Geografa y Ciencias Sociales. Universidad de
Barcelona. [ISSN1138-9788] N 81. [Consultado: 1 de febrero de 2001].Disponible en
internet: http://www.ub.edu/geocrit/sn-81.htm

Wikipedia, the free enciclopedia( on 8 january 2013). The free encyclopedia [ consulted: 15
december

of

2011]

Available

on

the

internet:http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmigraci

%C3%B3n_irregular

Wikipedia,the free enciclopedia( on 8 january 2013). The free encyclopedia [ consulted: 15

december of 2011]Available on the internet: http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inmigracin

26

http://ficus.pntic.mec.es/ibus0001/poblacion/Movimientos_migratorios.html
This page compiles information related to the topic of migration movement.

http://www.migrationeducation.org
Is a powerful, user-friendly information platform developed by Network Migration in Europe
e.V. which provides free online access to learning resources on migration, minorities and
human rights in European Citizenship Education on a european and national level.

ARTICLES

CASAS, Marta (2003). Fundaci Jaume Bofill. Tamb Catalans: Fills i filles de
famliesimmigrades.CollecciFinestraOberta,num. 38:Pag 16-18.
.

BOOKS

GARCACALABRS, Francisco (2009).Inmigrantes en Espaa: Claves para comprender un

fenmeno mundial. 1 ed. Espaa: Editorial delLaberinto, S.L. Pag 24-26.

27

10. ANNEXES

REPLIES OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES TO THE IMMIGRANTS OF THE

NEIGHBOURHOOD OF (CAMPOCLARO AND TORREFORTA)

Question 1: Nationalities

5%
5%
5%
5%
35%

Nigeria

5%
40%

Morroco
Ghana
Russia
Moldova
Chile
Equador

28

Among those questioned, were a total of 7 different nationalities, among which

the most representative, as the graphic shows, are Nigerians and Moroccans in
largest number of people.

Question 2: Age

16 years
5%

10% 5%5%

5%
5%

20%

17 years
18 years
19 years

45%

20 years
34 years
42 years
52 years

As you can see in this graph i tried to make the questions to people of all age
groups and both sexes, so male as female and has come out the following.
29

Question 3: What is the reason that made you to migrate to Spain?

20%

5%

Better job
35%

15%

Economic
Family

25%

Estudies
Other

In this graph we can see that it is not just one single reason that make people
migrate, there are many reasons which makes people leave their homes and
move to other places. The first is Economical reasons which have always been
among the main reasons for migration. The second is Family reasons, they
move to the new country to join their family already there.
The third is for a better job opportunities hence higher income more than it
would have been in the country they are moving from, with the increase of
money being achieved, they will be able to provide for their families. The fourth
is for a better education for themselves and their children. Lastly, other says for
personal reasons.

Question 4: Would you like to go back to your country or you would like to
stay here ?

30

15%

5%
yes
No

80%

Other

In the graph it is clear that the totality of the immigrant questioned which is 80%
says, they would like to return to their country, but just for a visit and not to
stay and live here forever. In contrast, 15% of the immigrants have answered
that they have no interest in returning, though they miss home.

Question 5: What was the main problem when you came to Spain?

10%

Housing

15% 5%

5%
10%

language
55%

Racism
Documentation
Other
None

One of the obstacles that the majority of immigrants may face in the local
population is the language on the part of 55% of the immigrants questioned,
some of them find it very difficult to speak the local language maybe because,
they have such a thick accent that it can make it difficult for locals to understand
them. The second problem they face is racism from the people in the host
country. Why other problems are housing, document, and discrimination.

Question 6: Did you have any problem of adaptation when arriving here?
31

20%
40%
40%

Yes
No
Other

In this result we find a great equality between immigrants adapted and not
adapted to our country. 40% of the immigrants interviewed claim that they are
fully adapted to the way of life of the local population. But the other 40% says
they do not feel adapted and the remaining 20% says they feel a bit adapted,
but not fully.

Question 7: Have you had any problems with the local people for being from
another country?

32

40%

Racismo
Yes
No

Let me explain what I wanted to express in this question. With if they felt
discriminated or not, i want to refer if they have been treated differently because
they are foreigners, for examples bad looking, sense of social rejection, etc.
60% of the surveyed have felt that way in many cases.

Question 8: Do you feel integrated in our society?

5%

10%
Yes
86%

No
Not at all

As for the desire that the immigrants have to integrate we can say that most of
the immigrants are well integrated to our society.

33

CONCLUTION OF THE QUESTIONNAIRES

In conclusion of the questionnaires that I have made to the immigrant people
living in the neighborhoods of Campoclaro and Torreforta I had to write the
questions in english and spanish for some people that doesnt understand
english.
In the first place i have realized that, although the foreign population has grown
very much in the recent years, these neighborhoods are not a good host
society. The result of the questionnaires says that we are before a racist and
discriminatory society, although we must bear in mind that the studied sample is
small.
The great majority of the immigrants questioned have sometime felt
discriminated, but also have also been insulted by the native population.
Secondly, I wonder if it really worth to leave a country, family, friends, one to
come to a country where the language is unknown, where they dont know the
type of job they may find. I found that the great majority did not regret of coming
to Spain, although they would like to go back to their country for a visit.
The most interesting thing is that the majority of immigrants are well integrated in
the society.
34

Finally, this questionnaires as really makes me understand the situation and the
obstacles most of the immigrants face when arriving in another country.

35