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Immigration as a Threat: Explaining the Changing Pattern of Xenophobia in Spain

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Abstract

Scenarios of economic crisis and rising unemployment have never been favourable to immigration. However, the desire to tighten up on immigration policy may also arise within the context of economic growth and a drop in the unemployment rate. This article aims to explain the changing pattern of xenophobia and immigration policy in Spain. Opinion polls run in Spain from 1993 to 2012 are analysed and supplemented with survey data from Eurobarometers and qualitative materials from the MEXEES and Living Together projects and the 2011 qualitative Eurobarometer. In line with Group Conflict Theory, the economic recession accentuates the image of immigration as an economic threat, with the consequent increase in xenophobia. However, economic booms in themselves do not determine the acceptance of immigrants. Longitudinal monitoring of public opinion data corroborates the fact that both the feeling of economic threat (Group Conflict Theory) and cultural threat (Social Identity Theory) depend on the perceived presence of immigrants, along with the image and attention paid to immigration in the media and political discourse.

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Notes

  1. Although his finding that prejudice is more widespread in countries with a high proportion of non-European Union immigrants and a low per capita GDP has been confirmed by several other studies, support for Group Conflict Theory is not unambiguous and conflicting evidence cannot be ignored, as stated by Meuleman et al. (2009).

  2. Their study underlined the strength of expressions such as ‘as everyone is coming here for the same thing, it’s like a competition everyday’ used by immigrants already established in the country.

  3. Symbolic threats concern differences in norms, beliefs and values that constitute a threat to the in-group’s worldview, while realistic threats refer to tangible ones arising as a result of scarce resources (economic assets and employment opportunities).

  4. As has been shown in Europe by Schneider (2008) and Markaki and Longhi (2013), and in the US by Ha (2010) and Newman (2012), the percentage of non-Western or non-EU immigrants (in Europe) and Hispanic immigrants (in the US) increases feelings of ethnic and cultural threat.

  5. Other variables are education, political ideology, economic outlook, age and gender. Race, income and fear of crime appear to have negligible effects.

  6. Wong (2010) added that ideology has a greater impact upon attitudes towards immigration than other factors: political conservatives hold more negative attitudes than political liberals. Cea D’Ancona (2014) also shows that the respondent’s political ideology is what most determines the scores on xenophobia versus xenophilia.

  7. Although in 1998 Spain was the country with highest net migration (159 per 1000) in the EU (as stated in the Eurostat Yearbook 2006–2007), from 2002, the figures increased considerably from 649 per 1000 in 2002 to 652.3 in 2005.

  8. Foreigners with a residence permit increased from 2.2 % of the total population in Spain in 2000 to 6.2 % in 2005, 9.7 in 2008 and 11.5 in 2012.

  9. As Cachón (2009) shows, Alien Regulation (Reglamento de Extranjería), approved in 2004, marked the beginning of a change in the migration management model.

  10. Projects funded by the Ministry of Education and Science (SEJ2005-00568) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO2009-07295). Their main results are detailed in Cea D’Ancona and Valles (2010a) and Cea D’Ancona et al. (2013).

  11. A European Project led by OBERAXE (The Spanish Observatory of Racism and Xenophobia) and cofinanced by the European Commission (JLS/FRC/2007). This may be consulted on the OBERAXE webpage and in Cea D’Ancona and Valles (2010b).

  12. The typology is discussed in Cea D’Ancona (2004, 2007) and Cea D’Ancona and Valles (2008, 2014).

  13. This was highlighted as a best practice at the 2nd Expert Seminar in the European Modules on Migrant Integration, held in Vienna (3–4 February 2011). The reports on these surveys, conducted by Cea D’Ancona and Valles, are published by OBERAXE (www.oberaxe.es//). The surveys can be found in the CIS database (http://www.cis.es).

  14. The economic growth acted as a pull for immigration, not the processes of regularisation for illegal immigrants (Izquierdo and Cornelius, 2012).

  15. Until the general election of March 1996, the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party) was in power, presided over by Felipe González; from 1996 up to the elections of March 14, 2004, the PP (Popular Party) held power under the leadership of José Mª Aznar as Prime Minister; from 2004 up to the elections of November 20, 2011, the PSOE, led by José Luis Zapatero; and from that date to the time of writing, the PP, led by Mariano Rajoy.

  16. The European Agency for the Management of Operational Cooperation at the External Borders of the Member States of the Union, founded by Regulation (EC) 2007/2004 of the Council. Aubarell (2009) attributes halving the number of arrivals by canoe/boat to Spain in 2007 to the Agency’s action.

  17. It is a public perception collected by opinion polls, but not a real problem. Few cases of racism were published at those dates.

  18. The riots began on October 27, 2005. The CIS barometer fieldwork was carried out from 15 to 21 November 2005.

  19. The foreigners interviewed in the MEXEES II project (Autumn 2010 - Spring 2011) insisted ‘We are no longer necessary’, ‘The relationship is more strained because we are all trying to survive’, ‘The crisis is increasing racism’ and ‘The Spanish think that immigration is the cause of the crisis.’

  20. This is the reason why there is no data for earlier dates.

  21. The accession treaties of Romania and Bulgaria to the EU had a moratorium until January 1, 2014 so that their nationals could enjoy the right to free movement of workers within the European Union. In 2007, Spain imposed the requirement to have a work permit and extended this in 2008. In 2009, Spain abolished this requirement, unlike Germany, France, the UK and Italy, which still require this.

  22. A face-to-face poll on 26,693 people of 15 or over in each EU country. The fieldwork was conducted from December 3–18, 2011.

  23. In 2011, there were 114,599 nationalisations—9122 fewer than in 2010—a further indicator of the effect of the economic crisis at the turn of the immigration cycle.

  24. The Constitutional Court ruled that the matter be reformed.

  25. Contrary to what is shown by Moreno and Bruquetas (2011, 2012), Jiménez-Martín et al. (2009) and Sánchez (2010).

  26. Article 3 restricts healthcare for unregistered foreigners or non-residents in Spain to emergency arrangements and to children under eighteen. This Royal Decree was also directed at controlling ‘health care tourism’, already considered in the Directive adopted by the European Parliament on January 18, 2011.

  27. Draskiv (1995) explained the high level of racism in the early nineties in Yugoslavia by the combination of strong nationalism with incitement to national and religious hatred in public life and the media.

  28. French President, Nicolas Sarkozy, contributed to the debate with a platform (published on December 8, 2009 in Le Monde) on national identity and the role of Islam in France.

  29. With headlines like ‘Merkel proclaims the failure of the model of cultural diversity in Germany’ (El País 24/10/10), ‘David Cameron takes multiculturalism in Britain as having failed’ (El País, 05/02/11).

  30. The Supreme Court, in a ruling of February 14, 2013, cancelled this prohibition, declaring it illegal. The main argument was that the Town Council did not possess powers to restrict a fundamental right: religious freedom. This could only be done through law. This sentence was passed in July 2013.

  31. In 2011, the Law on Aliens was passed (Royal Decree 557/2011, of April 20), which regulates procedures for authorising entry, residence and employment in Spain, covered by the reform of the Immigration Law (Law 2/2009). Among its innovations is the requirement to prove integration in order to be able to renew one’s residence permit and for family reunification. Indeed, the criterion for facilitating entry of immigrants which Spaniards give greatest weight to is ‘that foreigners are willing to adopt the way of life of the host country’ (an average of 8.0 on a scale of 0 to 10 in the 2011 and 2012 OBERAXE-CIS surveys). The second most highly valued criterion is ‘that immigrants have a job qualification that Spain needs’ (7.4 in 2011 and 2012).

  32. In Spain, the Law on the Right of Asylum and Subsidiary Protection (Law 12/2009) states that any person who has well-founded fears of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, membership of a social group, gender or sexual orientation is entitled to political asylum. The law also incorporates a preferential procedure for family reunification, invoking Directive 2003/86/EC on the right to family reunification.

  33. In the Special Eurobarometer 380 (TNS Opinion & Social 2012), Spain stood as the third country most favourable to labour immigration (51 %), behind the Finns (56 %) and the Swedes (60 %). As for political asylum, the most favourable countries were Sweden (95 %), Denmark (92 %) and the Netherlands (91 %); the least, Latvia (69 %) and Hungary (65 %). According to Eurostat (Data in focus 12/2012), approximately 70,000 people applied for asylum in the EU-27 in the second 4 months of 2012, 10 % fewer than the same period for 2011. Where there were most requests for asylum was in Sweden and Germany.

  34. A recent study of the image of immigration on the television (Igartua et al. 2012) concludes that immigrants are more often represented as people with a low level of education, violent, less hardworking, intelligent and tolerant. Their results in Spain coincide with those shown in research done in the US.

  35. The first year this question was included.

  36. On June 5, the government of Spain announced the tightening of the Law on Foreigners to restrict the regularisation of immigrants and limit family reunification, as had been done in Denmark, France and Germany. The announcement came 2 weeks before the survey field work, as in the case of 2006.

  37. There is evidence that one of the factors leading voters to support extreme right political parties in Europe is the perception of immigrant abuse of the welfare system (Kessler and Freeman 2005).

  38. The riots in the Tottenham district in August 2011 resembled the banlieue riots in France in November 2005.

  39. The PECI I (2007–2010) mobilised €2.325 m, which was applied to twelve different areas of intervention, among which were education, employment and shelter. PECI II (2011–2014) focusses on strengthening social cohesion; however, there have been important budget cuts on integration funds: €1.284 m (€1.400 m including European funds)

  40. The fieldwork for the survey took place between November 10 and 20, 2011 in the midst of the general election campaign.

  41. Barlow et al. (2012) has found evidence that negative contact between the two groups has a stronger impact on increasing prejudice than positive contact has on decreasing it.

  42. On an earlier occasion, the World Conference against Racism, Racial Discrimination, Xenophobia and Intolerance in Durban (August 31–September 8, 2001): point 88 of the Declaration.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a grant from the Spanish Ministry of Finance and Competitiveness (CSO2012-36127) and the Ministry of Science and Innovation (CSO2009-07295). Some of the results were presented and discussed at the 11th European Sociological Association Conference (Turin, Italy, August 28–31, 2013). This final version has also benefitted from the excellent comments and suggestions made by anonymous reviewers.

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  1. Departamento de Sociología IV, Facultad de Ciencias Políticas y Sociología, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Campus de Somosaguas, Pozuelo de Alarcón, 28223, Madrid, Spain

    Mª Ángeles Cea D’Ancona

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  1. Mª Ángeles Cea D’Ancona
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Correspondence to Mª Ángeles Cea D’Ancona.

Appendices

Appendices

Appendix 1

Table 1 Centres of final cluster analysis (K-means)
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Appendix 2

Table 2 Discriminant variables on the attitude to immigration in the 2010 and 2011 CIS-OBERAXE opinion polls
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Cea D’Ancona, M.Á. Immigration as a Threat: Explaining the Changing Pattern of Xenophobia in Spain. Int. Migration & Integration 17, 569–591 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12134-015-0415-3

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