Foreign workers were a significant factor in Spain's economic growth last year, which outpaced that of the EU, UK and US. According to the Bank of Spain, 85% of the 433,000 people who found a job between January and September 2024 were foreigners. This is proof of something that every SUR in English reader knows from experience: that Spain is one of Europe's most open and tolerant countries. It also shows that Vox's discriminatory rhetoric has a limited impact, if any, on immigrants themselves.

When Vox portrays immigrants (especially those who adhere to Islam) as spongers and thieves, it is not trying to deter them from coming to Spain. It is attempting to influence Spaniards' perception of them once they're here. The message seems to be working: according to a poll conducted last October, 57% of Spaniards think there are "too many" immigrants in Spain, and 75% associate them with negative concepts. Only 9% linked immigrants to economic prosperity.

The Spanish right's rhetoric bears little relation to reality. Over the next twenty years, an estimated fifteen million people will retire in Spain. Foreign-born workers will be key to maintaining the welfare state. The Bank of Spain has predicted that the country needs an extra 25 million immigrants over the next thirty years, to maintain the balance between workers and retirees. In 2023, one in six of Spain's 49 million people were

born in another country. Three million immigrants now account for 13% of the Spanish workforce.

The "taking our jobs" narrative traditionally employed by centre-right parties is not just inaccurate; it often represents a total inversion of reality. As in other countries, immigrants in Spain are willing to take the jobs that Spaniards don't want - in factories, farming and the care and service sectors. The jobs that qualified Spaniards do want are abroad and, since 2010, around 100,000 are leaving the country every year to find them. Spain also has some of Europe's highest adult and youth unemployment rates, at 11% and 25%, respectively.

In objection to what I have said above, one might argue as follows: "There is a crucial distinction between illegal and legal immigration. The latter is a huge benefit to Spain. All the statistics you quote refer to legal immigrants who pay into the social security system. But illegal immigration remains a problem, especially in the Canary Islands, where local resources are strained beyond capacity."

That distinction is not made enough in political discourse about immigration, creating a confusion from which, paradoxically, both the left and right benefit (as indicated by the poll referred to above). We need to be on the lookout for it whenever politicians discuss this intractable topic.