United Nations Development Change Group

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United NationsDevelopment Change Group

• SUBJECT Immigration in the European Union

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OVERVIEW

• Case study France and Spain
• background
• current governmental policy
• current statistics
• social problems
• Recommendations to UN

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History of Immigration--France
How am I supposed to feel French, when people
always describe me as a Frenchman of Algerian
origin?Nadir Dendoune

• Post WWII immigration
• French-Algerian War

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History of Immigration--Spain

• Moorish history in Spain
• Franco dictatorship to present

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Recent Laws and Developments
France Toughness
Spain Acceptance
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España

• Regularization

• Failure of Quotas
• Madrid bombings and aftermath
• Zapatero and changes in policy
• Country wide regularization February 7, 2005 and
  May 7, 2005
• Goal of the program

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Out of the Question

• La France

• May 2005 expulsion of illegals
• November riots
• Extremism vs. Understanding
• Presidential rivals Villepin vs. Sarkozy

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Recent Immigration Statistics
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Spain

• March 2005, 2,054,453 foreigners resided in Spain
  with legal documents.
• The government estimated that there were more
  than a million illegal residents prior to the
  legalization process.
• The number of illegal people in Spain may be
  greater than 1,600,000.

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Spain

• 2,000 foreigners who are not EU community members
  enter through the Pyrenees each day
• Citizens of Ecuador, Romania, Colombia and
  Argentina in this order are the principal
  nationals that are illegally working in Spain. 

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Criticism of legalization process

• Many Africans have been excluded for lack of
  legal papers.
• Criminal background checks only looked at Spanish
  infractions and country of origin infractions.
• Maintenance of legal status depends on employer
  obligations to pay social security.

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Post-war Immigration Policy France

• France was the only country in Europe to
  encourage permanent immigration
• Recruitment of new workers halted with the first
  oil shock in 1973.
• France has no organized interest groups
  advocating greater immigration.

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France

• 100,000 new entries per year.
• The legal flows have included EU migrants, family
  members of legal residents, and refugees and
  asylum-seekers admitted on the basis of
  constitutional and international law.

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Flaws in the system

• Repressive measures rendered formerly legal
  migration flows illegal.
• People known as (inexpulsables-irrégularisables)
  - including rejected asylum-seekers, and foreign
  parents of French childrencannot be expelled,
  yet are not eligible for residency permits

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Cultural Aspects

• French reaction to immigrants
• Desire of immigrants to be assimilated into
  society (Maghrebi Arabs, etc.)
• Failures Violence

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Cultural Aspects

• Spanish reaction to immigrants
• Immigrants Reaction

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Voices for Change
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Recommendations

• Work with IOs
• UNFPA, UNECE, IOM to garner accurate statistics
  of immigration
• Council of Europe and European Union to begin to
  implement Hague Program a common EU strategy

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Recommendations

• Implementation of National Social Programs
• Offer community programs for adults and children
  for cultural enrichment
• Skill training
• Current statistics for French minorities reform
  of laïcité
• Create micro-credit programs for minority groups
  for home ownership programs

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Recommendations

• Economic Programs
• Aid and investment in source countries two
  nations working together
• Accept need for immigration to maintain economic
  stability with declining population
• Encourage legal immigration, regularize employed
  illegals shrink informal economy
• Reform of the welfare state

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Summary European Immigration A Fact of Life

• France and Spain different ends of the spectrum
• History, policy, statistics, culture
• Need to implement above referenced
  recommendations