Resumen de Does Spain have an immigrant integration policy? Membership, Citizenship and Inmigration Policy in Democracy
Beth Erin Jones
Historically, Spain has been a country of emigration, not immigration. Up until the early seventies Spaniards themselves were those that emigrated to other parts of the world, mainly to the Americas and other European destinations. Spanish Emigration declined from the early 70s almost directly in conjunction with 1973 oil crisis. In the early nineties, emigration from Spain became an almost non-existent practice through to the present time although there has been a slight but steady increase of about 200,000 Spanish emigrants since 2002 to 2008. Even so, the increase of immigration in Spain has been exponential since the year 2000.
Coinciding with EU entry in 1986, immigration in Spain steadily increased, fueled by extreme economic growth and job creation in the 1990s and into the new millennium, right up until the recent world economic crisis. The greatest increase was noted between 2000 and 2007 where the increase in immigrants both legal and illegal reached approximately 10.4% of the total population while in 2000 it was only 2.3% of the total population. As a result of the turn from an emigration country to an immigration country in the recent decade or two, Spain has found itself in a position where its adjustment to such demographic change has become more than necessary, but indeed critical. Up until the mid nineties when government bodies were first formed to address the phenomenon, policy towards immigration in real or skeletal form was non-existent as there was truly no need for it. As time went by, the sheer numbers of immigrants entering the country through documented or undocumented channels forced the Spanish government to act in several ways: amnesty being one of them, as well as barriers to further immigration that was not based upon economic need, and a continued focus upon the idea of integrating those that have become perceived permanent members of the Spanish society as a whole. Integration being the popular and unclearly defined term of the day, before setting out its intents and limits, several other terms should be brought forth first.
First of all, the term immigrant should be defined as anyone who is residing outside his/her original national borders. Within such a wide category there other sub-categories: temporary residents (working or on extended holidays or retirement) with a finite idea as to the length of stay; residents that initially may think themselves to be temporary residents and then become permanent; and permanent residents that see themselves as settling in for the long-term. Unfortunately, the same type of residency card, or certificate in the case of EU members, is given out to all except in the case of immigrants involved in temporary work programs who may not have access to a normal residency card on a permanent basis because of the irregular stay involved in their work timetable. Generally though, those that are targeted for further integration into any society are those that wish to stay, without taking into account those from EU countries since they are allowed as EU residents to enter and leave as they please, with the exception the overlap of Romanian and Bulgarian citizens that have been stripped of the label of third-country residents (immigrant residents from countries outside the EU) to EU residents in 2007. Their entry into the EU may be recent, but their involvement in associations that have been actively part of the development of integration policy with the Spanish government in the last few years still makes them part of the immigrant population targeted by integration policies. So, with the exception of Romanians and Bulgarians, integration policy will be seen as directed to certain immigrants. Specifically, this is only part of the total immigrant population in the form of 30.5% from Latin America, 21% from Africa, (16% of that from Morocco), 6% from Asia, 2.9% from the rest of Europe, and also including the 15% from Romania and 3% from Bulgaria as of 2007. The other 21.6% of immigrants are either from the continent of Australia labeled as Oceania, North America (not including Mexico), and along with the EU countries, are not the targets of integration policies for a number of possible reasons. This could be for several reasons: either because their numbers are insignificant; they are considered to be already part of the European family; have access to their own resources that allow themselves to reside in Spain; or they are just temporarily visiting or working inside Spanish borders with no need or want to truly integrate themselves on a long-term basis.
Secondly, the term integration itself will be defined as the following, disregarding individual country approaches to the contrary. Essentially, it is comprised of the following points: one being the access to social benefits in the form of social security, medicine, unemployment, pension and education in the same venue and degree of any citizen; two being that the individual adapts to not just receiving benefits but to the responsibilities that come along with them such as paying one¿s taxes; point three is access to extra aid and support in the form of allowing the individual to improve language skills, help if needed in employment insertion and open access to, and aid in, legal procedures etc.; fourth, an ability to move within the social web in an relatively equal manner constructed by free right to association and speech; leading us towards the fifth point of integration which is that of some sort of political involvement whether it be in the consultative sense or in the form of direct suffrage. Finally, all immigrants should have the possibility of applying for full membership in the form of naturalization procedures, if they choose to, once permanent residency has been established, while not being forced to completely assimilate if they do feel the need to. In tune with a multicultural standpoint, there is no reason why they may not continue cultural practices within their home life and even celebrate publicly as long as they do not go against any basic laws of the host society. Society must adapt along with the immigrant through linguistic education and the upholding of all other laws that protect the rights and equality of its citizens. In other words, an approach towards a sense of equal treatment, along with extra help in gaining such treatment in the form of legal, education and employment services temporarily needed in order to breech the gap between an informed citizen and an immigrant not completely adjusted to his/her surroundings.
In order to further set out the context and towards answering the question as to whether Spain really has a clear and efficient integration policy for targeted immigrants as a whole, Part One of this study will deal with political science theories directed towards the evaluation of the concepts of membership, rights, citizenship, residency, civil society, and naturalization since such concepts cannot be ignored when faced with the their implications towards immigrant integration. After such theoretical designs have been explored, especially that of the modern role of citizenship, examples of models of immigrant incorporation in European nations shall be briefly discussed, suggesting how such models could be applied to the integration policy in Spain in the present and near future. Part Two is a historical treatment of Germany¿s much longer experience as an immigration country, treatment of citizenship, naturalization policy, judiciary and political party standpoint as well as welfare and Immigrant Association experiences in a hope to add a wider European historical context of Spain¿s very recent experience in regards to immigration. Both countries have quite different outlooks on to how immigrant integration should be approached and in regards to evolutionary themes such as citizenship and integration policy, Germany has dealt with both simultaneously, making it a prime example of the treatment of both theoretical concepts within a European context. Part Three returns to the Spanish model by going into the depths of its recent and present judiciary history as well as the functions and involvement of its Autonomous regions, including the analysis of the actual policy and the involvement of various Immigrant Associations in the consultative representation of government bodies and institutions that have played a part in the production of said integration policy up until now.
Most importantly is the efficiency and reach of such declared integration policy that is the focus of the study. In other words, whether it currently measures up to what may be required in order to include and incorporate targeted immigrants into Spanish society and whether its promise has a future within a Spanish and European context. Broadly approached, associational involvement in institutions that allow limited access to the political process is only one aspect towards labeling Spain as a country with an outright and clear integration policy, while it should not be ignored as a window towards which one may view its efficacy in dealing with the very barriers that do not allow for immigrants to fully integrate themselves into their host society: lack of legal expertise, cultural misunderstandings, lack of language skills, or lack of proper access to social welfare either because it is denied or simply bogged down by a slow bureaucratic process. Throughout the study, a normative political theory evaluation, supported by empirical data and statistics along the way, will be used to gain a sense of the theoretical approach Spain has defined, or on the contrary not defined clearly enough, in order to explain its plan to integrate its immigrant population¿those they feel that are in need of such integration for the most part¿as well as its form of implementation. A political theoretical standpoint of integration policy as well as the concept of citizenship as membership will be explored, supported by a qualitative interviewing process in dealing with the Spanish approach towards integration in particular.
Along the way one will begin to see, that while those involved may have it considerably clear as to what the Spanish government¿s focus should be, and while the formal policy may truly allude to such a focus, its inconsistency in directly implementing it and its lack of effectiveness in its coordination is more so reactionary than active. Given, the demographic change has been extraordinary and the government has not had much time to react, but at the same time it has also been constantly in the midst of an economic growth that has up until now been a rather steady platform to stand upon, which could have enabled it to form a more active role.
Still, the integration policy on behalf of the Spanish government is not all that lacking on paper. In fact, all points towards the definition of integration are met to different degrees. Still, the question as to whether such policy is effective in its implementation is a completely different matter, directly related to its liberal, bottom-up and therefore reactionary process of dealing with issues as they occur, as opposed to foreseeing actual difficulties. Nonetheless, such disorganization does not mean that those implementing the Spanish plan for integration on a day-to-day basis do not share the same ideals objectives and endeavors. Quite the contrary as the reactionary sense of implementation has allowed for focus upon the basic needs of the targeted immigrant population, mainly judicial, social welfare-orientated, and educational as each need has arisen and become a compound problem. In fact, the extensive need has turned most organizations and associations into entities that branch out to aid any immigrant group or individual, regardless as to their nationality, when before they were much narrower in their objectives and audience.
In answer to the proposed question of whether or not Spain has an immigrant integration policy¿ yes and no. Yes, what it does have is a great necessity for it, and the very policy a direct result of such necessity forced on paper in a well-rounded plan, although unclear in its ultimate goal of complete inclusion of the immigrant population as full members in society as naturalized citizens. No, in that its implementation does not reach its targeted population because of its lack of initiative and reliance upon private entities that do not have the proper scope or organizational skills among them to address the integration process as a whole. One cannot exactly fault them in the slightest since there really is not an active direction on the part of the government and they cannot possibly be expected to somehow come together in agreement when in reality the very government pits them against one another in competition for funds. In other words, a policy does exist. Nevertheless, it is simply a policy, not an effectively applied policy, since its implementation only reaches a small percentage of its targeted population.
