Index Introduction A Foreigner’s Juridical Status Statistical information Is there an immigration which is impossible to integrate? Immigration and criminality Islam in Spain

In the first three months of 2002, resident foreigners in Spain were 1,230,000 over a total amount of 40 million inhabitants, in relative terms only 3% of the population. The amount of immigrants is nowhere near the numbers other countries of the European Union have, but if absolute numbers are nothing special, the rhythm of growth of immigration is, since in 1995 they weren’t even half a million people (tab. 1). The surveys issued by the International Social Affaires bureau show that most immigrants have lived in Spain for more than one year and less than five (tab 2); they have come directly to Spain without having lived in any other country first (tab. 3);

they have chosen Spain because of its closeness, in the case of the African immigrants, or because it is the country it is easiest to enter, for Asians and Latin-Americans, besides, in this last case they also share a common language (4).

With regard to the attitude Spaniards show towards the phenomenon of immigration, it is useful to remember that from an historical point of view Spain was the accomplice of one of the most wide-spread – if not the most wide-spread – processes of mestizage ever to take place in the world. Furthermore, Spaniards are a mestizo people themselves, the fruit of contributions coming from the Iberians, the Celts, the Phoenicians, the Greek, the Romans, the Visigoths, the Arabs and the Jews. Spain would therefore seem to be predestined to respond positively to the phenomenon of mass migration. The results, however, have not been quite that optimistic. First of all because its mestizo origins date back centuries and are not part of the collective subconscious; and secondly because in Spain immigration has still not reached the extension it has in other European countries and so the attitude of the Spaniards in facing the phenomenon is still almost fresh; thirdly, the Country’s transformation from land of emigration to land of immigration was so quick that any effort to get used to the new reality has still not found much chances for completion.
At present in Spain there is a low level of racism and xenophobia, certainly lower than in other countries of the European Union and – this is a paradox – the most discriminated group are the gipsies: a Spanish national minority whose members came to Spain centuries ago.
The majority of Spaniards agree with issuing social welfare services to immigrants (tab. 5), and they are even slightly favourable to extending these services to irregular immigrants (tab. 6).
Spanish immigration policies are founded on three points: development cooperation with the countries of origin; entry quotas of people in numbers absorbable by the Spanish society and developing social integration programs. There are two organisms provided for assessment and participation: the Immigrant Integration Forum and the Permanent Immigration Observatory.