Spain's flip-flop on imigration

Gustavo Kuhn notes the change in tone of Spanish authorities. "Spain needs immigrants, was endlessly repeated in Madrid, thus defending the collective regulation in February 2005 of some 580,000 underground workers without papers. Studies confirmed it: the country owes its 'economic boom' to its new arrivals. Without them, there would be no 'thriving economic expansion'. Without them Spain would even come up against a recession, according to a statement in a recent report from the Caixa Catalunya bank. Like just about everywhere in Europe, incidentally. But the shock of images in the media will have been stronger than the weight of data. The unprecedented wave of 'cayucos', who landed some 5,000 'Sub-Saharans' on the beaches of the Canaries over one and a half months, has had a very strong impact."

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