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...

for complete article click here

Immigrants Riot after Senagalese Man is Killed in Spanish Resort Town

Riot in Spanish resort town after immigrant dies in stabbing
Graham Keeley in Barcelona
The Guardian, Monday September 8 2008

Immigrants went on the rampage yesterday after a Senegalese man was stabbed to death in a southern Spanish resort town popular with British expatriates.

Barricades were erected, at least two houses were set on fire and nine cars were damaged in Roquetas de Mar, a small town 15 miles east of Almería.

The violence flared in an area with a large immigrant population after the 28-year-old man died. Firefighters, trying to put out the blazes, described the scene as a "pitched battle" between immigrants and riot police.

Police said the violence, which started just before midnight on Saturday, was brought under control at 5am.

Four men were arrested, two from Guinea Bissau, one from Nigeria and one from Sudan.

Four police officers were injured. A spokesman said: "For reasons which the police are investigating, [the man] was attacked by a person from the neighbourhood who police are looking for."

The scenes on the streets of the resort town in Andalucia, which has a population of 71,000, were more reminiscent of riots in the suburbs of Paris.

It is the worst rioting involving immigrants in the region since 2000, when three murders in nearby El Ejido were carried out in the space of two weeks. They were apparently committed by Moroccans, and triggered racist violence that led to 23 arrests and 50 injuries and prompted an official protest from Morocco.

Despite having one of the fastest rising immigration rates in Europe in the past decade, Spain has largely escaped violence linked to immigration such as that seen in France.

Police in Roquetas de Mar said trouble flared when the Senegalese man, whose initials were given as OK, was stabbed when he reportedly tried to intervene in a row over drugs.

Miguel Corpas, of the Almería regional government, told the Cadena Ser radio station that "a large group [of immigrants] wanted to take justice into their own hands".

He added that a "fierce battle took place [in which] the immigrants took to the streets to try to stop the firefighters putting out the fires".

Corpas said the rioters erected barricades, and set fire to containers and to two houses that were completely destroyed. Rioters stoned the firefighters, according to some reports.

A quarter of the town's population are said to be African immigrants who come to work in construction or in businesses set up by foreigners.

guardian.co.uk © Guardian News and Media Limited 2008

921 migrants die trying to reach Spain in 2007

While immigration in Spain is nothing like the U.S. - Spain has been reacting strongly to it's new immigrants from Africa. Older, more conservative Spaniards I have spoken with say that it creates a clash between natives and Africans, with differences in religion, culture and skin color. Some younger Spaniards say that the reaction would not be as strong against white skinned immigrants.

As in the U.S. - Spain also has difficulties admitting it's racism.

The International Organization for Migration estimates that in 2006, 60-70 thousand people from Africa attempted to immigrate to Europe.
-----

El Pais - Madrid
921 inmigrantes murieron el pasado año en pateras que venían a España
Un informe de Derechos Humanos rechaza la política de control de fronteras

REYES RINCÓN - Sevilla - 14/03/2008


"Si ahora llegan menos inmigrantes es porque mueren más". Ésta es una de las dramáticas conclusiones que extrae Brigitte Espuche, miembro de Pro Derechos Humanos de Andalucía, tras colaborar en la redacción del informe sobre inmigración clandestina que cada año elabora la ONG.

"Las políticas de control de frontera, cada vez más represivas y crueles hace que las mafias buscan rutas más largas y peligrosas para esquivar la vigilancia", añade Espuche. Según el último estudio, presentado ayer en Sevilla, en 2007 fallecieron 921 personas en su intento de llegar por mar a España.

Ésta es la cifra oficial que recoge el informe Derechos Humanos en la Frontera Sur 2007 tras contrastar los datos de las autoridades españolas y los medios de comunicación. Pero según las estimaciones de los responsables del estudio, el número de fallecidos el año pasado ronda los 3.500 sólo en las costas andaluzas y canarias. "Las organizaciones de los países de origen o de tránsito nos aportan información de decenas de cayucos que se sabe que salieron pero a los que se perdió el rastro".

La estimación, según Espuche, está hecha "más bien es a la baja". "Y no contabilizamos, porque resulta imposible, a las víctimas que cayeron en la ruta que atraviesa el Sahel y se dirige hacia Argelia o Libia", advierte. De las 921 víctimas documentadas, 629 fueron de origen subsahariano, 287 magrebíes y 5 asiáticas. 189 fallecieron o desaparecieron en las costas españolas y el resto, 732, en las africanas. Según el informe, la zona del Estrecho se cobró el año pasado 131 vidas.

El informe de 2006 cifraba en 7.000 las personas que se habían dejado la vida intentando alcanzar las playas españolas. De ellas, 215 murieron a las puertas de Andalucía. La reducción del número de muertos y es sólo consecuencia, según la ONG, de que el número de pateras y cayucos que llegan a su destino también ha descendido, alrededor del 50%.

Pro Derechos Humanos criticó los datos "triunfalistas" aportados por el Gobierno en las semanas previas a las elecciones. "La inmigración no está cada vez más ordenada, sino más silenciada, más clandestina", sostiene la responsable del estudio, quien advirtió asimismo del peligro de que se extienda el "discurso demagogo" que presenta a los inmigrantes como una lacra. "Este enfoque es el que ha legitimado al PP para situar el debate migratorio con una falta absoluta de escrúpulos en la campaña electoral".

for link to EP click the title of this post

photo: http://data4.blog.de/media/782/1587782_8bd922ade7_m.jpg