The politics of immigration: Why Spain is different

Mediterranean Quarterly

Volumn 15, Issue 4, 2004, Pages 167-185

  Encarnación, Omar G ^a  

^a BARD COLLEGE   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ELECTION; IMMIGRATION POLICY; PUBLIC ATTITUDE; RACISM;

EASTERN HEMISPHERE; EURASIA; EUROPE; SOUTHERN EUROPE; SPAIN; WORLD;

EID: 14044250084     PISSN: 10474552     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1215/10474552-15-4-167     Document Type: Article

References (34)

1. For a broader view of this development, see Hans-Georg Betz, Radical Right-Wing Populism in Western Europe (New York: St. Martin's, 1994);
2. Herbert Kitschhelt, The Radical Right in Western Europe (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1995);
3. and Roger Eatwell, "The Rebirth of the Extreme Right in Western Europe?" Parliamentary Affairs, no. 53 (2000).
4. "Le Pen Vote Shocks France," Guardian, 22 April 2002.
5. "Why the Rise of the Right Should Worry Us," Evening Standard (London), 15 May 2002.
6. Surely not all the coverage has been this exaggerated. In a recent appraisal of the rise of the radical Right by the Economist it's called "toxic but containable." It notes that Le Pen's anti-immigrant, law-and-order message resonates widely across Europe, but the notion that the far Right is electorally surging, heading inexorably toward power in many lands, is not borne out by the evidence. It notes that in countries like Spain, Portugal, and Greece it hardly exists. See the Economist, "Europe's Far Right: Toxic but Containable," 25 April 2002.
7. Spaniards also appear to be more tolerant of immigrants than other Europeans, as suggested by the fact that attacks on immigrants, while increasing in frequency and seriousness, are relatively rare. The long-standing mistreatment and marginalization of Spanish "Gypsies," however, calls attention to racist tendencies in contemporary Spanish society and the possibility that anti-Gypsy attitudes might someday be transferred to the immigrant population.
8. Eatwell, 409. Other countries where the progress of the extreme Right has been slow include Portugal and Ireland.
9. For a broader view of immigration patterns in Spain since the mid-1980s see Joaquín Arango, "Becoming a Country of Immigration at the End of the Twentieth Century: The Case of Spain," in El Dorado or Fortress? Migration in Southern Europe (New York: St. Martin's, 2000), ed. Russell King, Gabriella Lazaridis, and Charalampos Tsardanidis;
10. Wayne A. Cornelius, "Spain: The Uneasy Transition from Labor Exporter to Labor Importer," in Controlling Immigration: A Global Perspective ed. Wayne A. Cornelius, P. L. Martin, and J. F. Hollifield (Stanford, Calif.: Stanford University Press, 1994);
11. and Antonio Izquierdo, La inmigración inesperada (Madrid: Trotta, 1996).
12. Unless otherwise noted, this and other statistical information about immigration in Spain comes from Migration Policy Institute (MPI), Spain: Country Profile (Washington, DC: MPI, 2003).
13. Belén Agrera, "Spain as a Recent Country of Immigration: How Immigration Became a Symbolic, Political, and Cultural Problem in the New Spain," Working Paper no. 57, Center for Comparative Immigration Studies, University of California-San Diego, La Jolla, Calif., August 2002, 5.
14. Ibid., 17.
15. A 2002 study by CECRA (the Spanish Commission against Racism and Related Discrimination) estimates that one in five immigrants in Spain is exploited in many sectors of the economy, including, most notably, agriculture, textiles, and domestic service.
16. Anthony M. Messina, "The Not So Silent Revolution: Postwar Migration to Western Europe," World Politics, no. 49 (1996): 148.
17. The statistical data on Spanish unemployment cited in this section is found in Nancy Bermeo, ed., Unemployment in Southern Europe: Coping with the Consequences (London: Frank Cass, 1999).
18. Wayne A. Cornelius, 331.
19. See Omar G. Encarnación, "Civil Society and the Consolidation of Democracy in Spain," Political Science Quarterly, no. 116 (2001): 63.
20. See L. Cachón, "Marco institutional de la discriminación y tipos de inmigrantes en el mercado de trabajo en España," Revista de Investigaciones Sociológicas, no. 69 (1995).
21. Michael Sammers, "Here to Work: Undocumented Immigration in the United States and Western Europe," SAIS Review 21 (winter-spring 2001): 140.
22. See M. Baldwin-Edwards, "Where Free Markets Reign: Aliens in the Twilight Zone," in Immigrants and the Informal Economy in Southern Europe, ed. Joaquín Arango and M. Baldwin-Edwards (London: Frank Cass, 1999).
23. Wayne A. Cornelius, 342.
24. I b i d.
25. Peter McDonough, Samuel Barnes, and Antonio López Pina, The Cultural Dynamics of Democratization in Spain (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1998), 25-30.
26. Concerned with the porous nature of the Spanish coast, a new coastal radar system, fashioned after Israel's early warning system, is being installed in Spain, paid for by the EU.
27. Michael Sammers, 140.
28. Wayne A. Cornelius, 360.
29. Sheelagh Ellwood, "The Extreme Right in Spain: A Dying Species?" The Far Right in Western and Eastern Europe, ed. Luciano Cheles, Ronnie Ferguson, and Michalina Vaughan (New York: Longman, 1995).
30. I b i d.
31. "Deep Unease over the Future Gnaws at Moroccans in Spain," New York Times, 15 March 2004.
32. "The Aftermath of September 11: The Tightening of Immigration Policies." Statement by Human Rights Watch on the Occasion of the Euro-Mediterranean Civil Forum, Valencia, Spain, 13 April 2002.
33. El País (Madrid edition), 20 July 2002.
34. El País (Madrid edition), 10 June 2002.