Spain’s Growing Immigration Problem

American’s tend to think they are the only ones with an immigration problem. But The Brussels Journal reminds us that a major immigration problem is occurring in Spain:

More than 920,000 new immigrants arrived in Spain during 2007, according to data just published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE). This comes on top of the 802,971 new arrivals in 2006, the 682,711 new arrivals in 2005, the 645,844 new arrivals in 2004, and so on. The politically sensitive figures were released during the middle of the summer holidays, presumably in an effort to avoid their detection by the vacationing general public.

All in all, Spain now has a total of 5.2 million immigrants, who make up more than 10 percent of Spain’s population, which has swelled from 40 million in 2000 to just over 46 million as of 1 January 2008. According to the Fundación BBVA [doc] research institute, Spain now has the largest number of immigrants in the developed world after the United States.

But the biggest significance of the new data is not that there are a lot of new immigrants in Spain, which is perfectly self-evident to everyone in the country. What the fresh numbers show is that there are now over one million new illegal immigrants in Spain; this less than three years after Socialist Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero tried to “fix” Spain’s illegal immigration problem by granting the largest blanket amnesty in Spanish history to nearly one million other illegal immigrants.

This piece by Soeren Kern. Senior Fellow for Transatlantic Relations at the Madrid-based Grupo de Estudios Estratégicos / Strategic Studies Group, has lot of solid info in it. Read it in its entirety.

UPDATE: From AFP:

The Spanish government adopted a draft law Friday rewarding immigrants who volunteer to return to their country of origin, on the condition they do not return to Spain for three years, a minister said.

Under the new plan — set to enter into effect by early November — immigrants would be allowed to return to their country of origin and still collect unemployment insurance, said Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho.

To take part in the “voluntary” plan, one must be from outside the European Union, come from a country that has an accord with Spanish social security, and be legally out of work, Corbacho told a press conference.

Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero’s government has been pushing the pragmatic approach of opening Spain’s doors to immigration during periods of growth, and closing them during times of crisis.

After having one of the most dynamic economies in the eurozone, Spain is now on the edge of recession.

Corbacho caused a small outcry September 3 when he announced Spain would be doing almost no direct recruitment from abroad like it did in the past, when workers would arrive in Spain with a contract already in hand.

Read the story in full.