Photos from London and Another Piece from the BBC on Immigration in Spain

First, here are my photos from my second to last trip during my time as a Fulbrighter: London. I visited a few friends there from Northwestern and had the opportunity to check out the traditional tourist sites before wandering around the city to observe the incredible amounts of diversity that exists within its demographics and the composition of its neighborhoods. Given that London has had a longer history of immigration and counter-cultural movements (and an incredible roster of rock musicians, DJs, and grime rappers), it is no suprise that I found myself feeling a little more at home when walking around the city. The photos are available here.

I also have come across another BBC piece about the decreasing number of irregular immigrants coming to Spain. In this case, the article discusses the falling number of Sub Saharan African migrants who come across the Atlantic to Spain's Canary Islands on pateras, small boats with a single engine that should accomodate only a small number of people but frequently transport large numbers of migrants, much to their own peril.

From the interviews that I carried out, I can say that the first patera came to the Canary islands in the mid 1990s; the numbers began to grow slowly over the course of the rest of the decade until the numbers exploded after the year 2002. That said, lawmakers and the Spanish media usually treat this form of migration as the greatest problem facing Spain in regards to the irregular flows of immigrants to Spain.

In reality, the largest number of irregular immigrants come through Barajas airport in Madrid from South America; pateras account for only 10% of irregular immigration. Still the patera and Sub-Saharan immigrant continue to remain the boogey-man in the mainstream discourse on immigration to Spain due to a mix of xenophobia, lack of education, and the lack of effective government policies to address this issue in a manner that respects their human rights while regulating movement into and out of Spanish territory.

The last item deserves some attention. Often times, the immigrants who survive the trip and arrive to the island's shore will receive treatment from NGOs before being transported to detention centers run by the Spanish national police and FRONTEX, the EU's border patrol. In these centers, where detention can last up to 40 days (60 days in the proposed reform of the LO 4/2000), the authorities review the documentation of the immigrants and process their deportation.

The problem arises when the migrant lacks documentation. In these cases, the authorities round up these individuals and ship them out to Madrid with an order of expulsion without a specific destination. The immigrants subsequently remain in Spain without any way to return home. At the same time, the requirements to gain a work contract and residency under the LO 14/2003, which requires irregular immigrants to stay in Spain for three years without being deported to gain access to residency, makes it difficult for these individuals to find viable work in the labor market. Often times, one will see these men selling bootleg copies of DVDs and CDs, fake name brand glasses and purses, or newspapers to make their living; I am unsure where women from these countries work in the underground economy. In short, these individuals have no way of finding a settled existence in Spain or abroad.

The inability of Spanish lawmakers to develop ways to regulate movement into and out of Spain and promote the integration of individuals has compounded the problem, especially due to the fact that they have refused to touch the LO 14/2003. Although the law states that all immigrant's will have a viable work contract even if no such document exists, it has created enormous administrative barriers to entry into the formal labor market as well as obstacles to the access of residency authorizations.

Further, the Spanish Government's decision to send immigrants with an order of expulsion to Madrid clearly demonstrates its refusal to develop a robust means to return immigrants to their countries of origins that respects their human rights and remains effective in regulation of the flows of irregular immigration. Sending immigrants to Madrid is not a longterm solution; neither is keeping them confined within detention centers with questionable humanitarian conditions.

Finally, although lawmakers have begun to create and fund co-development programs with the countries that emit the highest number of immigrants to Spain, these efforts have barely begun to fully address the source of the pateras: poverty and economic and political instability in Africa. Although the poor economic situation has reduced the number of pateras arriving on Spain's shores, only a comprehensive solution that addresses these three issues will truly address the problems of the pateras into Spain in the long term.