Set against so much worrying and negative news, the situation in Spain is very encouraging! We’ve just come back from two weeks there, and as so often in recent years we’ve observed a country that’s going places – in a very positive direction! A spate of articles recently, such as in the Independent, The Week and The London Economic, report that Spain’s economy is booming, thanks to the country’s policy towards migrants!
As I’ve described elsewhere, Spain has approached the migrant issue in a completely different way; the Ley de Extranjería (Law for foreigners) in its different manifestations over the last two decades or so provides for illegal migrants to be given rights and freedoms to stay and work in Spain… and to be integrated.
My wife and I have been observing this in the village where we’ve been spending many weeks each year since 2010. Being an agricultural village means there’s a need for workers fit enough to cultivate the sub-tropical fruit trees spread over the terraces of the steep hillsides. The village also provides builders to the towns and cities of the region, but many of the younger generation are lured away from the village by work and studies.
Consequently, as the local agricultores grow older, they are no longer able to manage their land… For some years Moroccan migrants have been doing much of the work, keeping the agricultural economy going, as we saw a couple of years ago when a young Moroccan was loading a truck with crates of nísperos (a type of medlar) while the aged agricultor looked on. We often see the young Moroccans at the village gym as well as in the village; now, the Moroccan wives work as carers for the elderly, including taking them out for their daily walk around the village, giving them the chance to socialise with friends instead of being totally housebound. Moroccan migrants are reconstructing our village street, and renovating empty houses. Their kids are filling out the classes in the primary school, ensuring it will stay viable. Integration indeed.
And it’s not just Moroccans: South American migrants are staffing the bars and restaurants: in the village we have waitresses from Paraguay and Argentina, and in a chiringuito (beachside restaurant) on the coast we had a lovely conversation recently with a Mexican waiter. Some discomfort is experienced in the small town on the coast where a hotel houses Sub-Saharan Africans waiting to be allocated to more permanent destinations, but many of them are already working locally in the greenhouses which feed northern Europe.
These migrants have security, work legally, pay taxes, spend their money in local businesses, all helping the local economy. They are contributing, not sponging. All of this is in a peaceful and harmonious society in which everyone is prospering as never before. How different from our situation, in which migrants are vilified and demonised, blamed for the failures actually caused by decades of failing governments. No wonder the Spanish economy is booming!
