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Immigration

Spain has taken on a leadership role in linking migration with development, called ‘co-desarrollo’. But the urge to control migration flows still threatens to put pressure on development cooperation.

Migration is becoming increasingly relevant to people’s economic opportunities in the South. Whereas financial markets and trade are more and more liberalised, labour mobility stops at the borders of continents. The government of Spain has made some remarkable moves on migration, some of then reactive, with a short-term perspective driven by current events and narrowly defined interest; others more laudable, with a more structural, developmental long-term perspective.

Amongst the structural initiatives, the legalisation of more than 700,000 undocumented immigrants at the beginning of the legislature stands out. For the first time, the government acknowledged with a big-bang the reality of Spain as a recipient nation. The public body in charge – the State Secretary for Migration [SEIE] – had been moved from the Ministry of Interior to Labour and Social Affairs, reflecting a shift in focus from control towards integration. The ‘Strategic Plan for Citizenship and Integration’, presented in April 2007, lays out strategies and responsibilities, and foresees an investment of 500 million euros per year on integration.1 The SECI strives for active cooperation with the SEIE. Spain has been active in looking for an international consensus on migration, promoting conferences such as the Euro Mediterranean Conference on Migration in Rabat, the Ibero-American Encounter on Migration, and active participation within the United Nations and the European Union.2 The Africa Plan – a whole-of-government declaration of intent – considers the regulation of migration to be one of its key missions, although without specifying further objectives and instruments.3 Spain claims to have influenced European migration policy significantly, as well as serving as an example for other member states’ policies.4

In areas more directly linked to international cooperation, the SECI has assumed leadership in the two connected themes of migration and development, and, in particular, the role of remittances in development. Co-development (codesarrollo) is the active involvement of migrant communities in rich countries in the development of their countries of origin. Spain has led the strategy of co-development within the OECD DAC, and has promoted a national strategy aimed at harmonizing the activities of municipal, regional and state actors.5 Within the International Initiative against Hunger and Poverty, comprising Brazil, Chile, France, Spain and the United Nations, the SECI has taken on the theme of remittances, and is preparing case studies in Senegal, Morocco and Ecuador.6

The above activities have a long-term focus, and intend to develop strategic answers towards increasing migration, foster multilateral consensus and devise instruments to promote integration and poverty reduction in countries of origin, while also regulating the inflow of migrants. They contrast sharply with some of the reactive, short-term interest-based policies that have been adopted by the Spanish government. As an example, the Africa Plan, which would have benefited from some maturing, was hastily published in June 2006 as a response to political pressure to tackle the crisis at the border fences of Ceuta and Melilla and the arrival of boat people at the Canary Islands.7 Spain, alarmed at the effect on its domestic tourist industry, rejected an airfare tax proposed by France as an alternative financing mechanism within the International Alliance against Hunger and Poverty. But most damaging for the legitimacy and effectiveness of development cooperation has been the obvious barter between Official Development Aid and repatriation agreements, mostly with West African states. Development considerations counted little when, for example, further credits (FAD) were conceded to Senegal.8