At the international level, Spain is characterized by the absence of serious social conflicts surrounding the integration of immigrants. Exceptions are the violent episodes in El Ejido (2000) and Elche (2004), which are atypical because they took place in a rural context and because there was violence involving several dozen people.
In Spanish cities there are many immigrants (historical record: 6,227,092 foreigners on April 1, 2023) living in a climate of apparent social peace. This situation has not changed even after the two socio-economic crises (in 2008 and the most recent one related to the Covid-19 pandemic).
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But why, unlike in other contexts, does social conflict not occur in Spain, despite the large number of foreigners and the extremely precarious social situation in which they find themselves?
An “under-integrated” immigrant population
To analyze the integration situation of the foreign population, we adopted the Theory of Rupture Frames (TMR) and followed Nancy Fraser’s work on the Scales of Justice. As a result, we find that the immigrant population in Spain reflects a partial integration in three main aspects: socio-economic (access to rights against inequality), politico-institutional (exercise of citizenship against delegitimization) and ethno-cultural (identity recognition against discrimination). ). We have defined this as “sub-integration”.
Data on severe poverty (21%), indebtedness (11.7%) and long-term unemployment (16.7%) affect households with an immigrant population more strongly
In the first area (socio-economic), an analysis of data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) between 2008 and 2021 shows that the foreign population living in Spain is in a greater economic situation. While the income level of the Spanish population hardly changed between 2020 and 2021, the average income of the foreign (non-EU) population fell significantly by more than 1,000 euros. Likewise, the relative poverty rate in 2021 among the non-EU expatriate population reached 59%.
An analysis by the Foessa Foundation (2021) shows a similar reality. Data on severe poverty (21%), indebtedness (11.7%) and long-term unemployment (16.7%) affect households with an immigrant population more strongly.
In the political-institutional sphere, the Ministry of Integration, Social Security and Migration has maintained accelerated regulatory activity since the pandemic. There were numerous directives, orders, laws and legal reforms that fundamentally led to an improvement in the working and hiring conditions of immigrants. However, the reforms continued to reorient the foreign population towards a stratified and segregated labor market, forcing them into jobs that the International Labor Organization (ILO) has described as dirty, dangerous and degrading the three”) Ds: “dirty, dangerous and difficult”).
In Spain, these are the hospitality, agriculture, livestock, fisheries, construction, domestic employment and care sectors, where there is high precariousness and temporary employment and a large amount of migrant workers. In this sense, the legislative reforms could not improve the low level of social integration of migrants, as they continued to focus on providing cheap labor to those labor sectors that demanded it.
Finally, Spain is located in the socio-cultural area between tolerance and distance. The opinion barometers of the Center for Sociological Research (CIS) and the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia show a tolerant and understanding attitude of the Spanish population towards migrants over the last decade. Recent research and studies in the most vulnerable metropolitan neighborhoods suggest that relations between the two groups remain calm, if distant. A large majority of Spaniards share an open and understanding attitude towards foreigners, thanks to the appreciation that “they do the jobs that Spaniards don’t want to do”. This occupational segregation, which sometimes leads to wage and housing discrimination, makes it possible to curb explicit racism.
Social capital, key to coping with the socio-economic and legal situation
Social relationships are vehicles of social capital (material help, influence, and access to other relationships) and relational goods (affection, security, frame of reference, and vital meaning). This social capital has helped to manage the situation of migrant vulnerability in Spain, and this is confirmed by an analysis of the indicators related to the quality of relations between the foreign population during the crisis period. The results were positive and there was little difference to the Spanish population.
Thus, social capital plays a crucial role in preventing social conflicts in our cities. These networks were able to mitigate the socioeconomic disadvantages experienced during crises and enabled strategies for survival, support and channeling social unrest. However, this limited protection has not facilitated changes in the nature of jobs, social status, income or wages of individuals or families.
The ethical dilemma
These outcomes lead to a fragile social peace that leads to subintegration of the immigrant population due to the preventive role of social capital. In other words, whatever the situation, migrants do not have sufficient tools to integrate and social capital has only helped them deal with their vulnerability, although we cannot expect this to be the case for long.
This uncomfortable reality raises the ethical dilemma: should the unjust status quo be reversed to achieve the full integration of foreigners or not? Given this fragile harmony, can the population with a migration background continue to occupy the worst social and economic positions compared to the native population? Is it legitimate to continue to push them into more secondary and vulnerable positions of work, residence and education?
The ethical dilemma of the subintegration of the immigrant population in Spain Francisco J. Lorenzo Gilsanz / María Inés Martínez Herrero / Barciela Fernández
The choice of inaction presupposes a fragile and unjust social peace, which in the future will lead to a scenario of serious and complex social conflicts, the approach of which must be repressive and policing. This does not happen with a political action or a social intervention aimed at promoting rights and equal opportunities. Although it would create social conflict in the short run, it would be easy for political leaders to address, and in the long run it would lead us to coexistence.
Faced with this ethical dilemma and considering the steady growth trend of the foreign population in Spain, we advocate the need to reverse the injustice that subintegration brings, in order to prevent future social outbreaks and ensure long-term coexistence.
Francisco J Lorenzo Gilsanz And Maria Ines Martinez Herrero They are teachers and researchers in the Department of Social Work at the National University of Distance Education.
Sergio Barciela Fernández He is a professor and researcher at the Migration Institute (IUEM) of the Pontifical University of Comillas.
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