Ixtab
06-16-2007, 07:24 AM
Immigration Will Transform Europe-Spanish Minister
By Jason Webb• Reuters • 6/10/07
MADRID, June 7 (Reuters) - Immigration will transform Europe in the next 20 years and policies to help the integration of new arrivals can avoid social tensions, Spain’s top immigration official said.
A European Commission proposal for stricter controls on illegal workers and efforts to ensure migrants’ children are well educated should help the continent digest the large influx of workers, Immigration Secretary Consuelo Rumi said.
“Not only Spain, but most of the European Union is going to be a very different society,” Rumi said in response to a question about the outlook for the next two decades.
“We will have to learn how to live with different races, different sorts of people and ensure harmony between the different cultures which will make up our societies.”
Spain, which had very few immigrants until the early 1990s, is now home to about four million foreigners, 10 percent of its population. Some of these are retirees from places like Germany and Britain, but most have come from Morocco, Latin America and Eastern Europe to seek work in a booming economy.
{snip}
Spain’s Socialist government annoyed its European partners by granting an amnesty to about 600,000 paperless migrants in 2005 but has since tried to crack down on illegal immigration.
Madrid has imposed visa requirements on countries such as Ecuador and Bolivia and has stepped up repatriations after a political furore over the arrival of 30,000 Africans who sailed to the Canary Islands last year.
“If you enter illegally you leave the country in the shortest possible time,” Rumi said of Spain’s ‘revolving door’ repatriations.
{snip}
The Bank of Spain has also said migration has slowed wage growth, which helps keep the country competitive but contributes to growing inequality.
{snip}http://inverted-world.com/index.php/news/news/immigration_will_transform_europe_spanish_minister/
By Jason Webb• Reuters • 6/10/07
MADRID, June 7 (Reuters) - Immigration will transform Europe in the next 20 years and policies to help the integration of new arrivals can avoid social tensions, Spain’s top immigration official said.
A European Commission proposal for stricter controls on illegal workers and efforts to ensure migrants’ children are well educated should help the continent digest the large influx of workers, Immigration Secretary Consuelo Rumi said.
“Not only Spain, but most of the European Union is going to be a very different society,” Rumi said in response to a question about the outlook for the next two decades.
“We will have to learn how to live with different races, different sorts of people and ensure harmony between the different cultures which will make up our societies.”
Spain, which had very few immigrants until the early 1990s, is now home to about four million foreigners, 10 percent of its population. Some of these are retirees from places like Germany and Britain, but most have come from Morocco, Latin America and Eastern Europe to seek work in a booming economy.
{snip}
Spain’s Socialist government annoyed its European partners by granting an amnesty to about 600,000 paperless migrants in 2005 but has since tried to crack down on illegal immigration.
Madrid has imposed visa requirements on countries such as Ecuador and Bolivia and has stepped up repatriations after a political furore over the arrival of 30,000 Africans who sailed to the Canary Islands last year.
“If you enter illegally you leave the country in the shortest possible time,” Rumi said of Spain’s ‘revolving door’ repatriations.
{snip}
The Bank of Spain has also said migration has slowed wage growth, which helps keep the country competitive but contributes to growing inequality.
{snip}http://inverted-world.com/index.php/news/news/immigration_will_transform_europe_spanish_minister/