Every Kind Of People – Part 2

Odd indeed for this blog to do a full-article day-after follow-up, but the immigration kerfuffle started by the Partido Popular’s presidential candidate Mariano Rajoy has brought forth more views ‘n’ news – it takes the spectre of a potential (but non-existent) threat to Brit interests to elevate Spanish politics from a state of almost total indifference in the lives of your average expat.

There was something I wanted to add to yesterday’s piece. Well, more than one thing. Firstly, the stink that Rajoy has caused with his talk of an “integration” policy for immigrants should really come as no surprise. Take this – “Interior Minister, Mariano Rajoy, has said: ‘The hope must be that people integrate. If an immigrant wants to live here and claim his rights, he will have obligations like learning to speak the language we all speak here.’ ” This comes from the BBC’s website. It pre-dates the victory of Zapatero in 2004, when Rajoy was a member of the Aznar administration. In other words, he has form, so the charge of opportunism carries less weight.

Secondly, immigration is a difficult subject for politicians, or at least a difficult subject on which to create a balanced and unemotional debate. It is almost inevitable that certain opinions within that debate will arouse a charge of racism or discrimination. It is why many politicians choose to avoid or skirt round it. Unless a free-for-all policy is being proposed, by definition some group or other is liable to be subject to some form of discrimination. However, this is not to let Rajoy off the hook, as his target is pretty clear. He would have been wiser to have called for a nuanced debate on the subject, rather than pandering to electorate fears of Africanisation or some other cultural disruption.

Thirdly, there is the British and EU dimension. Rajoy does not include EU immigration in his proposed policy, whereby new arrivals would sign a form of contract which would oblige them to be good boys and girls and go to Spanish classes (or something like that). EU states are limited in terms of what they can demand or stipulate of incomers from other EU states. They are free, for example, to apply certain discriminatory practices in respect of worker rights if they so wish. Whether people from Britain learn the language is a matter of their choice not for the state to enforce.

It is all the more confusing, therefore, that the leader in this week’s “Euro Weekly” seeks to make some form of capital out of Rajoy’s proposals and their impact on Brits. On the one hand it says that his words are not “aimed at northern Europeans who can’t speak the language”, and then, on the other, asks who Rajoy’s plans are going to affect, answering that “loyal readers” (of his newspaper) should “look in the mirror”. What on Earth does this mean? On the facing page, a short article states that Rajoy’s “proposed measures do not apply to those who come from EU countries”.

Fourthly, one could argue that Rajoy is being consistent in following a line of “Spanishness” in his campaign. He has, after all, managed to upset a fair number of Catalans, Mallorcans and others by stating that his educational policy would see Spanish (Castilian) being used as THE language of education throughout the country.

Finally, local Balearic boss, Francesc Antich (who is PSOE, like the Zapatero government), has become embroiled in the whole immigration saga, with the PP accusing him of not having an immigration policy. Commenting on this, “The Bulletin” makes a very good point, namely that under Antich’s Partido Popular predecessor, Jaume Matas, immigration into the Balearics was positively encouraged in order to provide jobs, mainly in the then booming construction industry. When it suits, it suits; when it doesn’t, it doesn’t. ‘Twas ever thus in politics.

Rajoy may yet win the election. He may yet introduce his immigration policy. But for the British community, it will carry on in largely blissful and total ignorance, unaffected by and disinterested in national politics. The worry about Rajoy, in addition to the opprobrium he has attracted, is, as with his daft comments about climate change, that he is something of a loose cannon and a less than thoughtful one at that.


QUIZ
As it’s the same title, the answer is held over. Sorry about that, folks.

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