Spain is one of the countries in Europe with the biggest economic growth. But this depends largely on the fact that it has come later than in other European countries, and on the incidence of immigration from South America. As much as 78% of the population growth is due to immigration, out of a total population of around 43 million (Negocios de La Gaceta, 08/03/2007). This giddy increase, with proletarians flooding the large cities – first and foremost Barcelona and Madrid – is also to be seen in a boom in the economy and in GNP. According to the INE (Instituto Nacional de Estadìsticas), in 2015 there will be over 8 million immigrants, i.e. 16% of the total population – a growth rate that puts Spain before France (8%), Belgium (8.7%), Germany (9%) and Austria (9.2%).
However, we have to remember that, despite the huge influx of immigrants over the past few years, every month around 150 thousand jobs remain uncovered (see: Instituto de Empleo); at the same time, however, companies are not taking on the Spanish unemployed (employment amongst Spaniards is growing only by 1.7%, as against 20.3% amongst foreigners). The EPA (Encuesta Poblaciòn Activa) speaks of 2.5 million unemployed Spaniards (15%), a sign that unemployment has now become a physiological fact. This shows clearly that the capitalist class is on the lookout for irregular immigrants to put on its payroll, who are ready to work 10-12 hours a day on wages that would be unthinkable for Spanish proletarians. A study by Caixa Catalunya demonstrates that, without the flow of cheap labour, the GNP would not have reached 3.2% a year but would, instead, have shrunk by around 1.7% or perhaps more. We can deduce from this that the exploitation of the proletariat has had the effect of making the economy “dynamic” over the decade 1995 to 2005.
It is interesting to note that Spain is the country in which immigration has grown most compared to the rest of Europe: around 8.5% a year, compared to an average 3.4% for the euro countries. Most of the South American or eastern (Chinese, Indian, Pakistani) immigrants are women, whilst it is mainly men who arrive from Africa. Amongst the South Americans, the most numerous are the Ecuadorians (around 700 thousand), fleeing from a poverty-stricken country which counts 8 million poor people out of 13 million inhabitants. The money sent back to Ecuador by these proletarians represents the country’s second resource and this alone explains the tremendous level of exploitation suffered by the new slaves of rampant Spanish capitalism. It should not be forgotten that only 4% of immigrants obtain a residence permit: naturally, this only serves to increase the exploitation and the blackmail, particularly in sectors such as building, catering, agriculture for export and domestic work. Generally, those who obtain a work agreement have to content themselves with a “contrato por obra”, something very similar to a “project contract”. The working day is quite long and everyone is inclined to accept overtime, paid without any increase in rates (as provided for by the law), since no irregular immigrant is in a position to negotiate with his or her employer.
Not having regular papers means not being able to enjoy the same salary level as other workers, or, worse still, something that does unfortunately happen, not being paid at all, especially if the employer is a sub-contractor of a foreign-based multinational. The government provides no protection, a court case is costly and takes time and no worker is ready to risk being sent home to even worse conditions of poverty. Solidarity amongst workers is very scarce, made worse by ethnic differences and by the segmentation imposed by the labour market which, as in the rest of Europe, is based on flexibility and precariousness. Union membership is very low (immigrant associations are preferred) and at the same time there is a loss of membership amongst Spanish nationals.
With their new entry into Europe, Bulgarians, Romanians and Poles are also being “recruited” by means of agreements between the present government and the governments of eastern European countries. A similar agreement also exists with the Ukraine, with whom Spain has promised to coordinate its own actions, requesting workers directly from the government in Kiev and even providing training courses directly in that country, well before they arrive to sweat it out in the country of Don Quixote. The same strategy of inclusion in the workforce is used for the Senegalese. The Spanish fishermen’s associations requested and obtained intervention by the Ministry of Labour, to “train” around 700 Senegalese workers to work in Spain. The Minister Jesùs Caldera had an immediate meeting with the Senegalese President (El Pais, 16/02/2007) to conclude a joint initiative bringing around 4000 African workers to take advantage of the “contratos en origen” (sold directly by their own government to become more or less slave labour in Spain).
Obviously, as well as doing the worse-paid jobs, the immigrants take on the riskiest tasks, to the extent that the figures on work-related accidents are soaring. Mortality amongst immigrants is 30% higher than the average for the whole of the working population. In 2005, out of an active population of 15.2 million, there were 6.108 accidents at work for every 100 thousand inhabitants. All in all, 78.395 accidents were recorded amongst immigrants, 96 of which were mortal, 838 serious and the rest “slight”.
Spain is one of the countries in Europe with the highest number of clandestine immigrants: research carried out directly by the Asociaciòn Profesional Espanolamakes it clear that, compared to the 48.427 immigrants made regular over a two-week period, as many as 58.964 workers applying for regular employment were dismissed from their jobs. Moreover, the numbers of workers given regular papers has shifted from 766.000 to only 1.097.191 in three years, a ridiculous figure, considering the overall labour force employed. In fact, the research highlights the fact that entrepreneurs fire those who apply for a regular contract. The process of obtaining regular papers is a failure before it begins, since capitalists – the Spanish economy – needs people it can blackmail and exploit to the limit. The living conditions are inhuman: exploited to the limit, with a high cost of living, rents soaring thanks also to the lack of housing, eternally persecuted by the police and discriminated by the rest of the local population…
To gain a more precise idea of the importance of immigrants, we might look at the law requested by the Banco de Espana and voted on 21/09/04, by which dispatches of money to Latin America are regulated – dispatches that amounted to 6000 euros in 2005. Almost all credit institutes offer to dispatch money for immigrants free of charge, so that the flow of money can be better monitored and the volume of wealth produced can be evaluated (it should be remembered that in 1994 dispatches amounted to 312 million euros only). A study by the European Community tells us that the money that capitalist bloodsuckers have saved thanks to the exploitation of immigrants amounts to around 8 points of the GNP.
In the end, this constant flood of exploited immigrants, obliged to live in inhuman conditions, cannot fail to produce social reactions, as in the case of Alcorcòn (a suburb of Madrid) where months ago clashes occurred between the police and thebandas latinas. Few resources are devolved to the suburbs and the possibilities of keeping the new (forgotten and desperate) olvidados tame are decreasing steadily. It does not, therefore, take much for instinctive anger to turn into revolt and rebellion, giving further proof – if it were needed – of the degree of ill-being experienced in the squalid society of Spain’s capital.
International Communist Party
(Internationalist Papers - Cahiers Internationalistes - Il Programma Comunista)