Migration Information Source - Spain: Forging an Immigration Policy http://www.migrationinformation.org/Profiles/print.cfm?ID=97 1 of 8 3/23/07 12:17 PM Spain: Forging an Immigration Policy By Nieves Ortega Pérez Universidad de Granada February 2003 Haga clic para leer el artículo en español. Immigration became part of the Spanish government's agenda in 1985, but it was not until the mid-1990s that it became a matter of vital importance to political elites and in the eyes of the public. The sharp increase in the number of foreign residents in the last years, the recent polemical debate surrounding the reform the immigration law, the establishment of a political immigration framework known as the Plan Greco, and the shortcomings of the 2002 labor quota program have made immigration one of the most hotly contested issues in the media, and the second most important "national" issue for Spaniards after terrorism. Shifting Flows In the period 1850-1950, 3.5 million Spanish, mainly temporary workers, left for the Americas from three areas: Galicia, Asturias, and the Canary Islands. Argentina received more than 1.5 million of these emigrants, and others went to Uruguay, Brazil, and Cuba. Spanish emigration to North Africa, though less well known, also took place from areas such as Murcia and the Balareas Islands. Algeria was the chosen destination of 94,000 Spanish emigrants in the last years of the 19th century. This flow shifted to Morocco after the establishment of the Spanish protectorate there in the period 1916-1919. During that period, some 85,000 Spaniards were counted, a number that rose to 250,000 when taking into account the residents of Cueta, Malilla and Tanger. Spain's migration flows in the 20th century changed radically in two different ways. First, the destinations of Spanish emigrants shifted dramatically. In the course of the century, some six million Spaniards left their country of origin, and until the 1930s, 80 percent chose to go to the Americas. From the 1950s to the mid-1970s, however, 74 percent chose the countries of Northern Europe. Second, in the last third of the 20th century, Spain evolved from its traditional role as a sending country and, increasingly, a transit country for migrants headed north. Spain became a receiving country for foreign laborers, mostly from Northern Africa and Latin America, and for well-to-do immigrants from other EU countries, such as retirees. The inversion of Spanish migration flows was brought about by the international economic crisis of the early 1970s. While the number of emigrants fell, the number of immigrants continued to increase at a steady pace. From 1961 to 1974, at the height of the guest worker programs in Europe, about 100,000 people emigrated each year. Since then, the numbers indicate that Spain's period of high emigration has ended, with total departures falling off from 20,000 per year to just over 2,000 annually in recent years. Spain's development into a country of immigration was part of a larger regional phenomenon. In the late 1980s, in the midst of economic crisis and the accompanying high unemployment, Mediterranean countries of Europe such as Spain, Portugal, and Italy, hitherto "way stations" or "waiting rooms" became receiving countries. This change