Regardless of the origin of the “violation of the territorial integrity of Spain” by more than 70,000 people from Morocco, the reality is that the permanence of an undetermined number of them 40 days later (only 200 have been expelled according to Minister Torres in an interview in La Vanguardia yesterday) is creating a problem that cannot be left to rot. You have to do pedagogy. I'm not talking about Ceuta, where citizen indignation and fear are understandable in the face of the current situation, but rather the rest of Spain, where immigration, until recently, was not seen as a problem.
First in September 2024, then this July, the CIS placed immigration as the first problem for Spaniards, in reaction to more frequent arrivals, due to it being summer, or this July, coinciding with the regularization process. What is the reason why Spaniards consider immigration one of the main problems that Spain has and yet they coexist with immigrants in a natural way and without problems in most cases. It is certain that the August barometer will raise this concern, since Spanish weaknesses in safeguarding its borders have been exposed.
But there are more reasons, and some depend on ourselves or, rather, on us, journalists, social leaders, and above all, political leaders, because words are not innocuous. Logically I am not talking about all politicians. I have not heard any leader of Sumar or the PSOE say, as the Vox deputy José María Figaredo has said, that we had to "hunt them all, one by one", in reference to the immigrants who had entered Ceuta, and he has not yet said anything, nor will he, because they are in line with many other leaders of his party, especially Santiago Abascal. It has been the PP that has signed up to the invasion theory and, therefore, they call immigrants invaders. It starts like this, and the words are repeated by the citizens without thinking about them, but they stick, and a breeding ground begins that we will come to regret.
We must not admit it. In Spain, immigration has been incorporated into our lives little by little, they are now part of us, including all those citizens who are now Spanish residents, who work with us and for us. There were 1,200,000 requests for regularization, of which some 600,000 have been admitted for processing, and 340,000 have already been positively resolved. But they have lived with us for more than two years, they work, their children go to school and they have found a place to live in Spain.
Some seem to insist that immigration be a problem, especially when the Spanish accept it more normally than the political leaders. They are not invaders. If after 40 days sleeping rough, without shelter, eating poorly and living poorly there are between 8,000 and 10,000 people willing to resist in those conditions, they are not coming to invade anything, but to look for a better life, even if they have made the wrong method.
Spain has been demonstrating that there is no rejection of immigration. At least that is what sociological studies commissioned by the NGO porCausa reported, although they also underline that Spanish public opinion is excessively vulnerable to information spikes in relation to immigration, so an abundance of biased, tendentious or alarmist news that is intensely repeated, reinforces xenophobic opinions, for a limited time. Again, the words, which are not innocuous.
By the way, of the regularization requests that have been presented in the current process, 23% are Colombians; Moroccans are 13%, and in third place, Venezuelans. 67% of these petitions presented come from Latin American countries. Reflect!
