Spain: The normalisation of immigrants in 2005

Download article in original language : ES0503205FES.DOC

The Spanish government has established a three-month process of normalisation for illegal immigrants, from 7 February to 7 May. There are two differences in comparison with previous processes: the large number of illegal immigrants and the fact that the formal application for legalisation must be made by employers. The aim of the government is to bring the underground economy, which is growing as a result of immigration, to the surface.

On 1 January 2005, the National Statistics Institute (Instituto Nacional de Estadística, INE) placed the official number of immigrants in Spain at 3.5 million—equivalent to over 7% of the total population. Only Germany, Austria and Belgium have higher levels within the European Union. Furthermore, the phenomenon has grown at an extraordinary rate, bearing in mind that in 1999 the number of immigrants was 750,000, representing 1.9% of the population. Currently, if the figure is contrasted with the number of residents stated by the Ministry of the Interior, 1.5 million immigrants are illegal. Though there are thousands of illegal immigrants in the European Union and the number has increased in recent years, it does not seem that such a high level has been reached in any other country. In Spain, as in several countries of the Union (Portugal, Italy, Germany and Austria), immigration controls have been toughened since the beginning of this decade. Several contentious measures have been adopted, including setting annual quotas (sometimes through bilateral agreements with the countries of origin), stricter border controls and expulsion of immigrants 'without papers'. However, illegal immigrants are still entering the country. The government attributes this growth to two factors: the ease with which immigrants find jobs in the underground economy and the difficulty of expulsion of illegal immigrants under the previous law.

The mechanism of legalisation of 2005

On 30 December 2004 the government approved the New Regulation of the Alien Law ('Reglamento de la Ley de Extranjería') (ES0412104F) after reaching a consensus with the employer organisations and trade unions, the autonomous communities and the federations of municipalities. This regulation established a three-month period of legalisation, called 'normalisation', from 7 February to 7 May 2005 in order to provide residence and work permits for thousands of immigrants. The regulation establishes the following procedure:

• The immigrants must present a certificate of registration in a Spanish locality at least six months prior to 7 March, i.e. before 8 August 2004. They must also present a certificate stating that they have no criminal record in their countries of origin.

• The employers, who are thereby forgiven for having contracted the workers illegally, must present these documents and a work contract for the person in question at the offices set up for this purpose.

• If everything is in order, the normalisation will become effective at the moment at which the employers register the worker for social security, rather than at the moment when the documents are presented.

The residence permit has a duration of one year, which may be extended provided that the contract is renewed and the worker is again registered for social security.

One month after the start of the process, 128,000 applications had been received, but no figures are available on the number of residence permits granted. Everything seems to indicate that the number of workers normalised will be far from the expected 800,000, which would have 'cleaned up' the labour market and placed these persons within the social security system. There are several reasons for this: many immigrants have not registered as residents even though they have been in the country for over six months, certain countries of origin are very slow in issuing reports on criminal records and, above all, many employers are reluctant to pay the wages and contributions involved in legal employment.

The position of the social partners

As stated above, the government had two reasons for establishing this process: achieving the social integration of these persons by giving them rights and obligations and making them—and their employers—contribute to the cost of collective welfare through social security contributions and income tax. Due to the slow response of the employers, the Minister of Labour announced that there will be 500,000 inspections by the Labour Inspectorate when the process of legalisation has ended. With the experience we have in this country, the Ministry will have to make a great political and economic effort if this announcement is to be seen as more than an idle threat.

The employer organisations expressed their agreement with the process, defending what they have often stated, i.e. that Spanish companies cannot find this manpower among autonomous workers. However, the employers in sectors in which the discipline of the employer organisations is low (construction, agriculture, hotels and catering) show a very different story. Also, many families who employ domestic workers believe that they cannot pay more than the wages of the underground economy, and inspections of homes are very unlikely.

The trade unions and some parties are pressing for something that they failed to obtain in the bargaining commission of this process: replacing the requirement of registration with equivalent documents that are less difficult to obtain, such as an expulsion order that has not been executed, a student card or a health card issued by an autonomous community. The reason for this is that some regions (Andalusia, Catalonia) issue the health card without registration, which eliminates the incentive to register for residence. Also, those who are subject to an expulsion order—or fear this possibility—do not register as residents. The Ministry of Labour states that some of these requests will be taken into account.

It is also the case that many employers dismiss their illegal workers to avoid having to contract them legally, on the assumption that they will be able to contract others illegally. In response to this, the trade unions have stated that they will report these companies at the end of the process, which will undoubtedly facilitate the inspections referred to by the Minister. Some dismissed workers are already reporting their employers.

The viewpoint of the European Union

Several countries of the European Union have stated their concern because the large-scale process of legalisation in Spain is creating an open door for immigrants to move to other EU countries. The Commission has not wished to make a statement on the subject because at present migration policies are still the responsibility of each country, but it indicates the need to speed up the agreements for a common immigration policy, which is not expected to materialise before 2010.

However, it should not be forgotten that many European countries have carried out legalisations in recent years and that due to the inappropriateness and impossibility of expelling illegal immigrants, this is a phenomenon that must be normalised in order to avoid greater evils.

Our viewpoint

The government was obliged to deal with the enormous number of illegal immigrants in Spain, almost all of them receiving basic health care and education, and many of them working but not contributing to the social security system. The government attempted to involve the employers in the process, but it does not seem that they are all going to collaborate, as this would involve an increase in their manpower costs. Therefore, the number of illegal immigrants will not be reduced greatly and will continue to rise with the hundreds of thousands who are arriving year after year. Southern Europe, and specifically Spain, is a favourite destination for African and Latin American immigrants because of proximity in one case and the language in the other.

In our opinion, the rate of immigration growth is too high, making suitable integration difficult. Therefore, measures should be devised to slow down the process. Agreements could be reached with nearby countries for seasonal work (agriculture and tourism), allowing the workers to return to their countries when work ends, with a guarantee of being employed the following year. Bilateral agreements could guarantee the work contract in the countries of origin for people who follow this channel. In general, the government and the trade unions should make more efforts to tackle underground employment and against wages lower than those laid down in the collective agreements.

The root problem is the great difference in development and conditions of life between the EU and many other regions of the world, which, in addition to the great facility of travel, make immigration an unstoppable process. (Fausto Miguélez, QUIT-UAB).