A Surgeof Latino Immigrants Sustain Spain

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Summary

The economic and political upheaval in South America, along with a common language, have sent the numbers coming to Spain from that continent soaring into the hundreds of thousands, up from tens of thousands only five years ago.

A Surge of Latino Immigrants Sustain Spain's GDP, Welfare

By Robert S Duncan

Wall Street Journal

MADRID -- Cesar Augusto and his cousin decided to visit Spain last year.

The two Venezuelans caught a flight from Caracas and arrived on three-month tourist visas. Like thousands before them, they didn't bother returning when the visas expired. "My cousin decided to stay, so I thought I'd stay to accompany him," said Mr. Augusto. "Besides, things are very bad in Venezuela."

And in Ecuador. And in Colombia. And in Argentina. And in Peru.

The economic and political upheaval in South America, along with a common language, have sent the numbers coming to Spain from that continent soaring into the hundreds of thousands, up from tens of thousands only five years ago. This wave of immigration has helped prop Spain's economy, both by contributing to its welfare system and by supplying unpopular work to crucial sectors, such as construction and services. Included in the services sector is tourism, which contributes 12% to Spain's gross domestic product.

But the needs of the Spanish economy don't mesh perfectly with the needs of the arrivals. Many immigrants run the risk of being trapped in marginalized jobs, experts warn, preventing them from fully integrating into Spain's economy and society even while their numbers grow.

With roughly 11% of the European Union's population and about 10% its GDP, Spain accounted for 22% of Europe's immigration during 2002.

Ecuador alone sent more than 200,000 citizens to Spain from 1998 to 2001.

Colombia added almost 150,000 during the same years. Argentine net migration to Spain rose nearly threefold for the same period, although the absolute numbers were lower.

By comparison, Morocco, a mere eight miles away and a country whose migration problems with Spain are widely publicized, sent just more than 100,000 to Spain during the same three years. South American, and other, foreign workers are helping to pay unemployment benefits Spain can ill afford. But despite their contribution, the arrivals are bringing tensions often hidden by the common language and which bode ill for the future.

According to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, the immigrants face "precarious conditions" because they aren't legal, work on temporary contracts and tend to work long hours, "sometimes paid below the contractual rate." As immigrants are channeled into temporary jobs, experts fear they will become a permanent underclass.

Latin American immigrants complain that speaking Spanish hasn't given them a lift up the economic ladder nor helped them integrate into society.

"[They] are really only competing with Spain's other, traditional, marginalized group: the gypsies," said Inaki Santacruz, a researcher at the University of Barcelona's CREA research center. He said the immigrants primarily take jobs in restaurants, as farm workers, on construction sites and as cleaners.

"They are types of work that are despised, that have no social status," he said. The workers have few narrow work options and little upward mobility.

For this reason, the businessmen's group, Circulo de Empresarios, criticizes laws requiring proof that no Spaniard is willing to take a job before it is given to a foreigner, ensuring that foreigners are offered only unpalatable work.

CREA said about 27% of legal immigrants are employed in cleaning compared to only 6% of Spain's employable population; 20% in agriculture and fishing compared to 9% of all workers, and 11% in restaurant work compared 1% of Spain's eligible.

"We aren't allowed to work in any other sectors," said Enrique Pulupa, the president of an Ecuadorean advocacy group, Coordinadora Nacional Ecuatorianos en Espana. "This could be a time bomb if things aren't solved."

But Mr. Pulupa and others say that businesses, trying to cut costs, add to the problem by turning to agencies to fill vacancies. Because agencies tend to fill short-term needs, the immigrants they employ don't qualify for loans and mortgages.

For Spanish businessmen like Genaro Lema Mouzo, the country cannot afford to block the immigrants. Mr. Lema manages the bar where Mr. Augusto works.

"We have to hire foreigners," he said. "You put out an advertisement, and 40 foreigners arrive at the door, and only two Spaniards will appear...Spaniards don't want to work weekends. They want to have Fridays and the weekends off. When a foreigner comes here, they accept the conditions."

Simultaneously, the foreigners are propping up Spain's welfare system.

Spain has been unwilling to cut benefits that some economists say would force Spaniards into jobs and instead has come to rely on foreign workers to pay for the cost of unemployment, according to an OECD report.

Even GDP growth of 2% last year -- Spain's slowest growth since 1993 -- outpaced the euro zone's paltry 0.8%. But despite strong economic growth the country's unemployment rate remains stubbornly high, at 11.5%, one of Europe's highest rates.

If you removed the foreign laborers and forced Spaniards to work in those jobs, the unemployment rate could drop to as low as 6.4%. "But that would be more unpopular than bringing in immigrants," said Mr. Santacruz.

The immigrants don't just take unwanted jobs. As of March, 890,000 of them paid social-welfare contributions. Although data is scarce, economists say immigrants are net contributors. At €100 per month -- the amount a low-paid cleaner might contribute -- those immigrants would pay almost €1 billion into the social-welfare system this year.

While some other EU countries have higher percentages of foreign workers to total population, none has a growth rate like Spain's. And the pace is likely to continue.

The government revised its citizenship rules during January, allowing more than one million people -- most of them South American -- to receive Spanish citizenship. Foreign Minister Ana Palacios expects Latin American turmoil to be a leading factor behind their move.

The demand is unmistakable, but the story isn't always a happy one.

Mr. Rosero, a 29-year old Ecuadorean who works as a street vendor, hawking whatever is the latest fashion, from T-shirts to bootleg C Ds, fights back tears as he describes his disappointment. "It's not easy here in Spain," he said as he distributes pamphlets from a company offering services for Latin American immigrants. "It's not a paradise. Here you suffer, searching to make ends meet, doing whatever you can.

"If you don't have your papers in order, they will take advantage of you. I was working in construction and they paid me half of what they paid those who had papers," he explained.

"I was a small businessman in Ecuador and thought that things would be better here," Mr. Rosero said, adding that he sold everything and came to Spain as a tourist along with his wife and young daughter a year ago. Like many immigrants, he asked that only his surname be used.

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES/WALL STREET JOURNAL - April 2003