Development & Aid, Europe, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Population

MIGRATION-SPAIN: Only for Argentines

Tito Drago

MADRID, Jun 16 2004 (IPS) - Argentine immigrants in Spain are closer to obtaining residency and work permits than their counterparts from other Latin American countries, like Ecuador, or from Africa, who will still be trapped in jobs without contracts, living under the constant fear of being deported.

Foreign ministers Rafael Bielsa of Argentina and Miguel Angel Moratinos of Spain agreed in Madrid Tuesday to set up a working group to study the situation of undocumented Argentine immigrants living in Spain and ”lend them an ear,” Bielsa said in a joint news briefing.

The working group will be made up of diplomats and representatives of the seven organisations of Argentine immigrants in Spain, which also met with Bielsa.

The Argentine minister reported that Argentina’s Interior Ministry will continue its on-line census of immigrants. Some 15,000 of the 100,000 Argentines living in Spain have added their names so far, according to non-governmental organisations.

The agreement did not please everyone. Miguel González, secretary general of an Ecuadorean association, Llactacaru (Ecuador Distant Land, in the Quichua language), told IPS that it was not appropriate to make a distinction between immigrant workers according to their nationality, and that the rights of all immigrants should be recognised.

González said that in this European country of 40 million, there are more than one million undocumented immigrants, who are ”citizens living in an irregular situation, without rights, unprotected, who live in a kind of legal apartheid” – an allusion to the segregationist regime that collapsed in South Africa in 1994.

Although it is positive that progress is made for Argentine immigrants, ”the rest of the immigrants should not be forgotten or marginalised,” he argued.

González does not believe that if the Spanish government decided to legalise the situation of all immigrant workers, it would trigger an even more intense immigration flow. ”We come here because there’s employment, because they need labour power, and because we want to work,” he said.

A source at the Spanish Foreign Ministry told IPS that it is important to reach a ”state pact” supported by all of Spain’s political parties, to put top priority on addressing the situation of all immigrants, not just Argentines. The source did not clarify what the content of that pact might be.

Argentine human rights lawyer Carlos Slepoy, who has been living in exile in Spain since Argentina’s 1976-1983 dictatorship, commented to IPS that Argentina and Spain should apply international treaties that reciprocally guarantee the right to work of immigrants from both nations.

He also said the census is unnecessary because it leaves out those who do not sign up out of fear or lack of information, while ”everyone has the right to regularise their situation.”

Minister Moratinos did not go into detail about what the working group would be doing, simply stating that ”Sensitive to the situation of Argentines, we have created a working group to accelerate the analysis of eventual problems that could emerge regarding this issue.”

A top priority of Spain’s socialist government, which has been in office for two months, is ”to make immigration more orderly and propose a state pact,” he added.

The cautious stance taken by the Spanish government is largely due to the fact that it must respect European Union immigration accords, without leaving aside the treaties signed with Argentina, which contradict the European agreements in some respects.

Nor was Bielsa very explicit. ”No one has a better understanding of problems than those who suffer them. There are many immigrants in an irregular situation who have difficulties, and I believe that lending them an ear, to learn about their day-to-day lives, is reasonable and intelligent,” said the Argentine foreign minister.

But Bielsa made it clear that the Argentine government wants the working group to be able to take a hand, for example, in cases involving arrests or possible threats of deportation against undocumented immigrants.

The government of socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero has decided to leave behind the strict regulations put in place by the right-wing administration of José María Aznar, which only allowed work contracts to be extended to foreigners before they actually travelled to Spain.

Moratinos said Madrid ”is willing to help all of these people (immigrants) who work and contribute to efforts towards social and economic development in Spain.”

The flow of immigrants expanded fourfold in Spain in the past four years. The total number of foreign nationals climbed from around 637,000 in 1998 to 2.66 million in 2003, counting both legal residents and undocumented immigrants.

According to the National Institute of Statistics (INE), immigrants now make up 6.2 percent of the population.

Ecuadoreans account for 14.6 percent of all immigrants in Spain, closely followed by Moroccans, who represent 14.2 percent. Ecuadoreans, Moroccans, and Colombians together comprise 40 percent of the total. INE statistics also show that the number of Argentine immigrants has increased.

Another study, by the Foundation of Savings Banks, predicts that in 10 years, there will be roughly 11 million foreign residents in Spain – in other words, by 2015 one-fourth of the population will not be Spanish.

The study also adds that immigrant families accounted for 75 percent of all births registered in 2003.