Illegal Migration to Spain: Still the Main Problem

Illegal and mass immigration throughout Europe has been trending in recent years, in fact, we can say that it is the big issue in the Old Continent. More and more people are talking about it as something to be addressed, as we have seen in rise of the new conservative right in most of the national, regional and European elections in recent months.

It is not surprising that given the inaction of the traditional center-left and center-right parties, new parties have reacted to the elephant in the room and that is why they have gained so many votes and popularity throughout Europe.

Spain is not far behind, in fact, since the arrival of Pedro Sánchez (current Prime Minister of Spain) the illegal immigration suffered by the country has increased in numbers that had not been seen before. In short, more than 310,000 illegal immigrants have entered Spain since Pedro Sánchez came to power.

In the first quarter of 2024, 277 percent more illegal immigrants arrived in Spain than in the same period of 2023. The worst disembarkation figures, (13,115) were recorded in the Canary Islands, with a 502.2 percent increase over last year. Far from drawing up plans to alleviate Spain’s migratory problem or to curb the ‘call effect’, in April Congress processed an initiative to regularize 500,000 irregular immigrants.

Current Situation

The Canary Islands continue to set a new historical record in terms of volume of entries in a single week with more than 40 boats and 2,823 illegal immigrants, data that had not been seen in any period in the last 15 years. Most of the boats leave from Morocco, although they have also been seen in Algeria, Mauritania and Senegal.

Although the destination is the Canary Islands, since it is the closest to Africa, many of the illegal immigrants end up arriving throughout the Spanish territory, since what the Spanish government is doing is chartering planes with hundreds of immigrants bound for the peninsula, those who are still minors, are sent to centers for unaccompanied minors.  In fact, during the month of September alone, eight planes have been chartered with more than 2,000 illegal immigrants from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula.

Also, most immigrants had always been sent to big cities, but recently, they are being sent to small towns or villages, which are already knowing the consequences of multiculturalism. 

Illegal Migration: Divided Opposition

A few months ago, there was a big debate in Spain because the Canary Islands, a Spanish region close to the African continent was (and is) suffering from migratory waves which it could not support and accommodate on its own, so it asked the Spanish executive for help. The Spanish government asked the regions to take in unaccompanied minors (MENAs in Spain) in solidarity in order to decongest the islands. However, the PP governments that were with Vox did not want to at that time, as they had signed in the government agreements to try in their measure and their competences to fight against illegal immigration. However, despite the fact that Vox threatened that they would break the governments if they welcomed illegals in their regions, the PP ended up doing so and Vox broke the governments, accusing the PP of being ‘traitors’ and loyal to Sánchez. 

The position of the Popular Party is not entirely clear, in some moments it seems that they want to fight illegal immigration, but then they talk about solidarity and distributing immigrants in all cities. Maybe the strategy they follow is to try to be reluctant with illegal immigration, but without appearing to be ‘extremists’ like Vox. It is a strategy that can work well, since they can try to show that they are against illegal immigration, but without the positions and speeches that Vox has taken. However, this strategy is also very dangerous, as you are showing your voter and potential voter that you are not firm on an issue, when it is an issue that is of increasing concern to the average Spanish citizen.

Vox’s position is clear and forceful against illegal and massive immigration. Vox rejects illegal immigration and rejects the idea of imposed ‘solidarity’. Vox believes that illegal immigration only brings almost irreversible long-term consequences to Spanish society. Multiculturalism for them is a social engineering that globalism wants to do to destroy the culture, traditions and identity of European societies. For the same reason, Vox broke the regional governments with the PP, since for Vox the top priority is to fight against illegal immigration. Their strategy may backfire in the short term, since the society that is not with Sánchez wants to “kick him out” as soon as possible and they may opt for the useful vote by voting for the PP. However, in the long term it will probably be the perfect strategy, since the concern about immigration is growing in Spain and will continue to grow, so they will be the only ones who were against it from the beginning, something that Le Pen did in France, for example, which was always the third party, but then it was their turn and they were able to unseat Les Républicains.

Does Illegal Migration Concern Spaniards? Yes

The Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas (CIS) published last week a barometer to check how Spanish society thought about some issues. The main news is that to the question “What is, in your opinion, the main problem that currently exists in Spain?” the majority answer was immigration with 30.4 percent.

Immigration has gone from being the fourth concern – this is how it appeared in the July survey, with 16.9 percent, below unemployment, the economy and “political problems in general”- to being in the lead only two months later. Compared to the June survey, immigration has risen in 100 days from ninth place (11.2 percent) to the top of the list of Spaniards’ problems. That is, it has grown almost 20 points (19.2 percent) during the summer.

Given this, we can see that illegal immigration is clearly a major issue in Spanish society, although this is not directly reflected in the political vote.