United NationsDevelopment Change Group

SUBJECT: Immigration in the European Union

OVERVIEW

Case study: France and Spain• background• current governmental policy• current statistics • social problems

• Recommendations to UN

History of Immigration--France

Post WWII immigration

French-Algerian War

How am I supposed to feel French, when people always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian origin?Nadir Dendoune

History of Immigration--Spain

•Moorish history in Spain Moorish history in Spain

•Franco dictatorship to presentFranco dictatorship to present

Recent Laws and Developments

France: Toughness

Spain: Acceptance

España

• Failure of Quotas • Madrid bombings and aftermath• Zapatero and changes in policy• Country wide regularization

February 7, 2005 and May 7, 2005• Goal of the program

Regularization

“Out of the Question”La France

•May 2005: expulsion of illegalsMay 2005: expulsion of illegals•November riots November riots Extremism vs. UnderstandingExtremism vs. UnderstandingPresidential rivals: Villepin vs. SarkozyPresidential rivals: Villepin vs. Sarkozy

Recent Immigration Statistics

Spain

• March 2005, 2,054,453 foreigners resided in Spain with legal documents.

• The government estimated that there were more than a million illegal residents prior to the legalization process.

• The number of illegal people in Spain may be greater than 1,600,000.

Spain

• 2,000 foreigners who are not EU community members enter through the Pyrenees each day

• Citizens of Ecuador, Romania, Colombia and Argentina in this order are the principal nationals that are illegally working in Spain. 

Criticism of legalization process

• Many Africans have been excluded for lack of legal papers.

• Criminal background checks only looked at Spanish infractions and country of origin infractions.

• Maintenance of legal status depends on employer obligations to pay social security.

Post-war Immigration Policy France

• France was the only country in Europe to encourage permanent immigration

• Recruitment of new workers halted with the first oil shock in 1973.

• France has no organized interest groups advocating greater immigration.

France • 100,000 new entries per year.

• The legal flows have included EU migrants, family members of legal residents, and refugees and asylum-seekers admitted on the basis of constitutional and international law.

Flaws in the system

• Repressive measures rendered formerly legal migration flows illegal.

• People known as (inexpulsables-irrégularisables) - including rejected asylum-seekers, and foreign parents of French children—cannot be expelled, yet are not eligible for residency permits

Cultural Aspects• French reaction to

immigrants• Desire of

immigrants to be assimilated into society (Maghrebi Arabs, etc.)

• Failures = Violence

Cultural Aspects

Spanish reaction to immigrants

Immigrants Reaction

Voices for Change

Recommendations• Work with IOs

• UNFPA, UNECE, IOM to garner accurate statistics of immigration

• Council of Europe and European Union to begin to implement Hague Program; a common EU strategy

Recommendations

• Implementation of National Social Programs:• Offer community programs for adults and children for

cultural enrichment• Skill training• Current statistics for French minorities; reform of laïcité• Create micro-credit programs for minority groups for

home ownership programs

Recommendations• Economic Programs

• Aid and investment in source countries: two nations working together

• Accept need for immigration to maintain economic stability with declining population

• Encourage legal immigration, regularize employed illegals shrink informal economy

• Reform of the “welfare state”

Summary: European Immigration: A Fact of Life

• France and Spain: different ends of the spectrum

• History, policy, statistics, culture

• Need to implement above referenced recommendations