By IPS Correspondents
MADRID, Oct 24 2007 (IPS)

The European Union is set to open its doors wide to qualified immigrants with its blue card system, and at the same time slam them even more tightly shut to undocumented workers, of whom there are 10 million in the bloc, including 700,000 in Spain.

In Spain, as in the rest of Europes, the entry requirements for foreigners who are well qualified are being made more flexible, prompting "heavy brain drain from countries of the South, while we refuse to increase the number of entry permits for unskilled workers," Gonzalo Fanjul, coordinator of research for Intermon Oxfam, told IPS.

He acknowledged that there are complex problems associated with migration which cannot be solved overnight, but can be overcome in the medium term. Concrete measures should be taken to this end, he said.

Fanjul, who coordinated a research study presented by the non-governmental Intermon Oxfam in Madrid on Monday, said that the long term solution to immigration is development in the South, which should be fomented at the same time as measures are taken to cut red tape for the entry of immigrant workers.

Easier entry should be encouraged for social and humanitarian reasons, but also because "it is naive to think that immigration to Europe can be stopped by policing measures alone," he said.

The report, "Puertas al Mar" ("Gates to the Sea"), stresses that "the current restrictions on the international movement of persons is a direct invitation to illegal immigration…and is the new face of poverty and exclusion."

She said that if the world’s wealth were shared more evenly, everyone would be able to eat properly.

The report says the migration policies of developed countries, which concentrate on policing borders, are costly, fuel illegal immigration, violate human rights and contribute to creating pockets of poverty and exclusion.

One example of such costs is the high-tech razor-wire barrier along the 11-kilometre border of the tiny Spanish enclave of Melilla, in northern Africa, to prevent migrants entering from Morocco.

The third stage alone of the fence, built in 2006, cost 20 million euros (nearly 30 million dollars). The same sum of money put to alternative uses could have eradicated malaria, which affects 11 million children in sub-Saharan Africa, the document says. In addition, every hour that a patrol boat and a spotter plane are in action costs 3,700 euros (5,200 dollars), equivalent to the annual income of 10 citizens of Sierra Leone.

The report also says that migration flows can offer unprecedented opportunities in the struggle against poverty and inequality, if they are well managed, to the benefit of both countries of origin and receiving countries.

One of the hurdles to the development of poor countries that Intermon Oxfam says should be eliminated are EU subsidies to exports, which amount to 55 billion euros (77 billion dollars) a year, equivalent to 40 percent of the EU’s total budget.

In Spain, for instance, the duchess of Alba, whose full name is María del Rosario Cayetana Alfonsa Victoria Eugenia Francisca Fitz-James Stuart y Silva, lives in a mansion in central Madrid and owns a great deal of land, most of it lying fallow.

She is paid two million euros (2.8 million dollars) a year in state subsidies, equivalent to the combined yearly incomes of 15,000 campesinos (peasant farmers) in Guatemala.

One percent of Spain’s 900,000 subsidy recipients collect 22 percent of the total subsidies, and the 80 richest are paid over one million euros (1.4 million dollars) a year each, even if they do not work their lands or lease them to others to do so.

EU Agricultural Commissioner Mariann Fischer Boel has proposed changes which, if accepted, would cut agricultural subsidies from Nov. 20.

The proposal calls for subsidies of over 300,000 euros a year to be slashed by 45 percent. Subsidies amounting to between 200,000 and 300,000 a year would be cut by 25 percent, and those of less than 200,000 euros a year would be reduced by 10 percent.

In 2003, the previous commissioner, Franz Fischer, put forward a proposal to cap all subsidies at 300,000 euros a year, but it was rejected.

Ariane Arpa, the head of Intermon Oxfam, said Monday that "we have done our best to gate the sea and fence off the borders, and we have spent a fortune and considerable social energy on preventing illegal entry of immigrants, whom our society needs. But these policies have not worked well at all."

The report recommends action on two principal fronts. First, putting immigration at the service of development through active policies, including a new model of border management, and second, mitigating the conditions that cause people to leave their home countries, so that emigration can be a voluntary and orderly choice in which people’s basic rights are protected.

Spain needs 400,000 immigrants a year in order to sustain its economic growth rate, but under the legal immigration process which matches would-be migrants to job vacancies before they leave their own countries, only 200,000 documented migrants made the journey to Spain in 2006.

This is a situation that benefits neither party. "It increases irregular immigration and the exploitation of workers without a contract, who are paid less than the minimum wage and do not enjoy any social benefits," said Fanjul.

In short, Intermon Oxfam advocates the following: an effective contribution towards generating decent job opportunities in countries of the developing South; reforms to the immigration model, by means of a European migration policy that facilitates the entry and movement of non-EU workers; and a reduction in the cost of sending remittances.

On the weekend, Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa, who was visiting Spain, had a positive contribution to make. At a meeting on Saturday with fellow-Ecuadoreans working in Spain, Correa introduced his government’s "Plan of Return", effective from next January.

The plan will provide incentives for emigrants to return to Ecuador, such as customs tax exemptions for their household belongings, and vouchers and microcredit to ease their reentry into economic activity.

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