Illegal immigrants do not exist

There are no “illegal” immigrants. That’s a misleading label. And dehumanizing. With it, the ultra parties stigmatize those who come to Europe in search of economic refuge or political asylum. Those who seek to turn the EU into an emporium of exclusion and advocate deporting them to concentration camps in third countries that lack democracy. These forces are trying to take advantage of the European elections from June 6 to 9. They seek to use them as a lever to toughen European migration policy, just after reaching an agonizing pact in December that closed it, halfway between internal solidarity and external exaggeration. And whose five regulations were just approved on May 15.

So the first thing is to call things by their name. There are no illegal immigrants. Perhaps in an illegal situation, which is not their responsibility, but rather entails the duty of the society of arrival—also as a historical hotbed of emigrants—to adjust its reception, social, educational, health, and housing structures. There will perhaps be “illegal immigration”, a concept that does not appear in the Treaty of Rome, founder of today’s Europe (1957), but only since its deficient revision in Nice (2001).

Even accepting it, that is not equivalent to approaching immigration as a problem. Because it is not for citizens. The latest Eurobarometer, the European Parliament’s major survey, confirmed in April that migration and asylum appear only in seventh place of their interests and concerns. And in the eighth of its priorities for the EU of the future, even though a large majority “perceives” that there are too many people from third countries in their environment, according to the BVA Xsight survey for ARTE.

It is not a real problem, most recent history shows. The large flow of Syrians and Afghans from Turkey in 2015 caused political—barely social—friction only because the Hungarian government and some extremist forces used it for their devolutionary purposes. It was a million people, a drop of water compared to the ocean of more than five million Ukrainian refugees incorporated into the EU with complete normality: who were automatically welcomed, activating the European temporary protection directive on March 4, 2022. , just a week after the invasion. If five million is no problem, why should one million be? It only becomes so if it is instrumentalized.

Immigration is not a problem for employment. It’s your solution. It does not harm the native unemployed, as demonstrated by the paradigmatic case of Spain: the community partner with even the most unemployment, where it would be understood that the tension was pressing. In this country there are still 155,797 vacancies, jobs that have yet to be filled, at different levels, because companies cannot find job seekers for them (data as of September 2023). And in Europe as a whole, this gap triples to 3.1%, as the Commission highlighted in 2022 in its report. Attract skills and talent to the EU.

And it is thanks to immigrants that total employment has just easily surpassed the historical milestone of 21 million Social Security affiliates. Of the million jobs created between 2022 and 2023, more than half, 536,000, had to be filled with foreign workers; and up to 650,000 if those who hold dual nationality are included.

Immigration does not constitute a problem for social services, as evidenced by the absence of conflicts and street demonstrations in this regard, in a country as addicted to protest as ours. Although imbalances, saturation and sometimes collapse appear in certain outpatient clinics or hospitals and in certain school classrooms: there would also be them if the added population were indigenous. And in housing, a common drama for Christians and Moors, whites and blacks, although worse for the newcomers. The problem is how to expand and improve the structures of the welfare state to the new demographic structure of a country with a powerful population (48.5 million inhabitants) thanks to its foreign residents (13.4%).

It is not an economic problem, but on the contrary. At least it constitutes one of its solutions. Well, the benefit provided by immigration in terms of GDP, productivity and contribution to Social Security and the Treasury is usually greater than the cost of accommodating it. Studies by the ICF, the Bertelsmann Foundation, the IMF and the OECD indicate this: they are younger, stronger workers, and with greater drive. And in some places, like the US, they create companies “at twice the rate of natives” (Immigration factsfwd.us, 2020).

And yet, different EU Executives and parties have been infected by the stigma launched by the extreme right. On the manipulation of data of relatives of refugees in Holland. From lepenism in France, of whose Macronist law the Constitutional Council had to annul 32 articles (out of 86), such as those that cut social benefits for refugees and set entry quotas.

And now with the attempt of the Italian Prime Minister, Giorgia Meloni, who seeks to found deportee camps in Albania and that other partners intend to “explore.” On the form of Sunak model in Great Britain, which will exile them to Rwanda. But we will always have justice. The High Court of Northern Ireland has decreed the illegality of these expulsions for going to an “unsafe” country and violating the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights, which the Charter of Fundamental Rights of the EU (with status of Treaty) enshrined in its preamble as a mandatory reference for the Twenty-Seven.

Follow all the international information on Facebook and xor in our weekly newsletter.

_