Spain Tightens Immigration Rules

Spain regularized 600,000 undocumented immigrants in 2005 - it needed labor at the time. Now things have changed, the global financial crisis has affected their labor market and they have decided to crack down on immigrants without papers.

Spain proposes tougher laws for immigrants


By DANIEL WOOLLS
The Associated Press/Washington Post
Friday, December 19, 2008; 10:52 AM

MADRID, Spain -- Grappling with rising unemployment and a moribund economy, the Spanish government proposed new immigration rules Friday to limit the influx of immigrants.

The measures, which need Parliamentary approval, would let police hold undocumented aliens longer pending expulsion and make it harder for foreign-born residents to bring relatives over. They are yet another reflection of the dramatic turnabout in Spain's economy.

Just a few years ago, Spain was Europe's top job-creator. In 2005, it even granted amnesty to 600,000 illegal aliens, many of whom worked under-the-table as laborers in a booming real estate sector.

But with the property bubble collapse in the last year, the Spanish economy is now on the verge of recession and unemployment has soared to an EU-high of 11.3 percent. Among immigrants, the jobless rate surpasses 17 percent.

Labor Minister Celestino Corbacho said Friday the government must limit immigrants so as not to swell the ranks of the unemployed...more

Immigration crackdown in Spain after economic downturn

Unemployed Immigrants Struggle as Hard-Pressed Spain Rolls Up Welcome Mat

New York Times
December 10, 2008


Spain created more jobs and drew more immigrants than any other country in Europe in the past decade, largely because of a construction boom. As the economy shrinks, employers are disgorging workers at an alarming rate — unemployment soared to more than 11 percent in the third quarter — and immigrants in low-skilled jobs have been hit hardest.

The once permissive Spanish government is rolling up the welcome mat, even encouraging immigrants to return home in exchange for lump-sum welfare payments. During its economic boom, Spain epitomized Europe’s hunger for low-cost labor. But now, it could become a laboratory for the strains that emerge when those workers are unemployed, yet stay put.

Spain has not yet suffered the outbursts of xenophobia heard in places like Italy, and Spaniards say their own years as a nation of émigrés help them sympathize...

But hospitality may wear thin. Spain’s unemployment rate is now the highest in the European Union, up from 8 percent at the end of 2007. Among immigrants, unemployment is estimated at 17 percent. About five million immigrants are registered as living in Spain, a country of 46 million, with Moroccans, Romanians and Ecuadoreans topping the list.

... Many [immigrants] said life had become a grinding trail of employment centers, soup kitchens and local charities. Some are months behind on rent or mortgage payments and have racked up debts a month...

...The authorities have cracked down on businesses that employ undocumented workers, and immigrants say plainclothes police officers prowl commuter trains, arresting those without papers. Prime Minister José Rodríguez Zapatero has said he supports the European Union’s tough Return Directive, which would allow illegal migrants to be held for as long as 18 months...

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