Immigrants Protest in Favor of Legalization Program in Spain

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Immigrants Protest in Favor of Legalization Program in Spain

Photograph

By: Cesar Rangel

Date: June 11, 2004

Source: Caser Rangel/AFP/Getty Images.

About the Photographer: Cesar Rangel, a freelance photographer based in Barcelona, Spain, has contributed over 3,000 images to the Getty Images archives.

INTRODUCTION

This photograph portrays some of the estimated 1,700 immigrants that occupied two of Barcelona's main churches in June 2004 demanding the right to live and work in Spain legally. Following raids by the police, the immigrants left the churches peacefully, but continued to demonstrate on the streets, threatening to repeat the sit-ins if the government did not respond positively to their requests.

Similar demonstrations, as well as a hunger-strike, had been held by undocumented immigrants in Spain three years earlier, as a result the authorities agreed to review the papers of thousands of those who had not been approved for work and residency permits under a legalization scheme at that time.

In recent decades, Spain has experienced a steady increase in the numbers of both legal and undocumented labor migrants entering the country, mainly from nearby Morocco, but also from Pakistan, Latin American countries and other parts of the world. These people mainly work in unskilled or low-skilled jobs in the informal economy, especially in agricultural and construction work, catering, and the tourism industry. In 2003 and 2004, Spain received more legal immigrants than any other European Union (EU) nation, while at the same time, the numbers of undocumented migrants are also estimated to have increased rapidly.

Up until the mid-1980s, when Spain became a member of the EU and was put under pressure from other EU countries to control immigration, the country had no official immigration policy. When the first "foreigners' law" was passed in 1985, this created a new category of undocumented migrants who were already living and working in Spain. Policies over the next twenty years were mainly focused on attempting to control the number of immigrants entering and staying in the country, and little attention was given to integrating those already living there, whether legal or undocumented. However, Spain has enacted several regularization programs in recognition of the significant presence of undocumented immigrants and their contribution to the Spanish economy. Legalization programs, or amnesties, took place in 1986, 1991, and 1996. By the mid-1990s, under the socialist government of the time, steps were taken to recognize legal migrants as permanent rather than temporary members of society, by introducing six-year work permits, easing the family reunification rules and extending basic health and education rights to immigrants entering under family reunification visas.

When a conservative government was elected in 2000 under José María Aznar, immigration rules were tightened and the government refused to implement another regularization program. It made a clearer distinction than in the past between legal and undocumented migration, and enacted new laws that made living and working in Spain as an undocumented migrant a criminal act. Diplomatic relations suffered as Spain criticized Morocco for failing to tackle the problem of Moroccan illegal migration, and targeted Moroccans in its campaign to gain public support for its harsh policies against undocumented immigrants, linking the rise in Moroccan undocumented migration with increased crime rates in Spain.

In April 2004, a new socialist government under Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodríguez Zapatero came to power. Traditionally, the Socialists had been much more sympathetic to the plight of both legal and undocumented immigrants in Spain, and the new Government's announcement that it would improve the situation of undocumented immigrants raised the hopes of many, and gave rise to public statements of their demands, as in the Cathedral sit-in.

PRIMARY SOURCE

IMMIGRANTS PROTEST IN FAVOR OF LEGALIZATION PROGRAM IN SPAIN

See primary source image.

SIGNIFICANCE

Shortly after the immigrant demonstrations, in August 2004, the Spanish government announced a new policy under which immigrants holding employment contracts would be provided legal status. However, only a small proportion of undocumented migrants have an employment contract, so the proposals fell far short of the demands of many thousands of immigrants for regularization of their status. More positively, President Zapatero promised to pursue a policy of extending undocumented migrants rights for health care, education and social services, and committed the government to reviewing a massive backlog of applications for regularized status.

Spain's economy will depend increasingly on labor migrants, as its working-age population is projected to start shrinking by 2010. However, it is under significant pressure from other European countries to control immigration, especially undocumented migration, as many migrants are currently passing through Spain and settling illegally in other parts of Europe. It will be necessary for Spain to implement policies which tackle the problem of illegal immigration more effectively than in the past, as well as dealing with the demands of a huge undocumented immigrant community already in the country, and facilitating the social integration of those it decides are entitled to stay.