Spain and Immigration - or walking through Lavapies
"No country has run more legalization programs than Spain, which has carried out six since 1985. As recently as a decade ago, immigrants made up less than 2 percent of the population. Now they are more than 10 percent. About 40 percent come from eastern and northern Europe; 38 percent come from Latin America; and 20 percent from Africa.
The only thing that disturbs me is that this "multicultural" society keeps being segregated in most aspects, a group of men with one skin colour playing football, a group of differently coloured men watching them, the restaurants predominantly offering South Asian Food and spanish people almost absent from the neighbourhood except the "alternative" kind.
There's only very limited spaces where cultures start mixing, watching kids from all parts of the world playing together, the little shops stacking both corn tortillas and garam masala, people enjoying food, dance and movies at the recent "Bollymadrid" Festival. Then again, it's always easy to critize others, how much contact do I have in Switzerland with the different immigrant groups there? and no, not contact in the sense of "oh you're so different and exciting", but everyday interaction, just like with swiss people... yep, food for thought...
ps: If I have an idea for a book, kind of photoreportage-style, whom do I have to talk to to find out how to publish it? :)
Despite the rapid change, until recently there was little political conflict, with legalizations occurring under both conservative and socialist governments. Spain even offers immigrants free health insurance, whether they are legal or not.
“The attitude toward unauthorized migrants is much more relaxed than in the United States,” said Joaquín Arango, a sociologist at Complutense University in Madrid.
The acceptance has been attributed to newfound prosperity, the need for workers, the progressive culture of post-Franco Spain and the shared language with Latin Americans, which spares Spain a major source of tension in the United States."
The New York Times - Spain, Like U.S., Grapples With Immigration
The only thing that disturbs me is that this "multicultural" society keeps being segregated in most aspects, a group of men with one skin colour playing football, a group of differently coloured men watching them, the restaurants predominantly offering South Asian Food and spanish people almost absent from the neighbourhood except the "alternative" kind.
There's only very limited spaces where cultures start mixing, watching kids from all parts of the world playing together, the little shops stacking both corn tortillas and garam masala, people enjoying food, dance and movies at the recent "Bollymadrid" Festival. Then again, it's always easy to critize others, how much contact do I have in Switzerland with the different immigrant groups there? and no, not contact in the sense of "oh you're so different and exciting", but everyday interaction, just like with swiss people... yep, food for thought...
ps: If I have an idea for a book, kind of photoreportage-style, whom do I have to talk to to find out how to publish it? :)
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