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    "How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar"
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    “How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar”

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    23 Comments

    2. former_farmer on

      Is it the immigration policy or is it tourism? I mean everyone in Europe wants to visit Spain at least once per year.

      But yeah thanks to immigration it’s always possible to find an employee who will work for 1000-1500 euro per month, and there are a lot of people, from any age, just living renting rooms that will never be able to afford a home.

    3. Lez0fire on

      GDP has surged, but salaries increase below inflation, one of the reasons why this happens is that there will always be an immigrant wanting to do any job for 1200 € neto a month, so no pressure for companies to raise wages, also 3 million immigrants in 7 years while building less than 1 million homes means more demand for houses and increased prices, therefore spaniards are in a worse position than before. But of course Ashifa Kassam has a different agenda, I wonder why.

    5. anarion321 on

      Spain has different inmigrations flows due to South America, trying to extrapolate globally would lead to errors.

    6. No-Horse-8711 on

      It’s true. In Spain we are losing inhabitants. Receiving immigrants, training them and introducing them to an active work life is the remedy to remain competitive. By the way, they do not take jobs away from Spaniards. If you train yourself well, you will find work. The problem is that salaries are still very low.

    7. George_Hayman on

      At the beginning this strategy seems like rocket fuel for the economy. Then the economy gets hooked on cheap imported labour and businesses stop investing. Productivity and GDP per capita go down. Reference: UK

    8. gorkatg on

      El artículo comienza con Madrid y Barcelona (únicas ciudades con trabajos competitivos que sostienen otros territorios y al funcionariado), la dos ciudades cuyas clases medias están más explotadas e incapaces de mantener el estatus empobreciéndose a pasos agigantados;

      * pagando más impuestos que nadie,

      * incapaces de comprar vivienda o alquilar,

      * a merced de inmigración que mantiene salarios bajos y

      * la competición de expats y clases altas latinas que vienen con salarios que les duplican y ahorros para comprar en cash.

      Claro, y luego que si no nacen niños…

    11. kebuenowilly on

      Spanish government overspending is what is boosting the economy. And I am afraid it will come crashing soon because it’s unsustainable

    12. rajas_ on

      Solo le va bien a los grandes empresas relacionadas con el Turismo y a los Bancos. El sector turístico se mantiene por los sudamericanos con papeles no con los que llegan en patera sufriendo mil calamidades. Los números crecen pero el dinero va a una minoría, a eso yo no le llamo un resurgir económico, nos cargamos los recursos naturales de todos para beneficiar a unos pocos.

    13. NeoFlash91 on

      This kind of post enrage me because here no one is noticing that the economy is “soaring”. Prices are higher than ever, salaries are absurdingly low (all kinds of work), all weeks taxes increase, government is overspending…

      Also an immigrant talking about how great is the immigration. Clear conflict of interest.

    14. rbopq on

      Why nobody is talking about the problems that much immigration cause?

      And I am not talking about security or crime I am talking about the rising price in housing. It’s ridiculous how the prices are rising in cities like Madrid or Barcelona.

    17. Fair_Tension_5936 on

      If immigration is so great then why dont all the poorer countries these people are coming from open their borders ?

    18. Thefeno on

      Welp, you must take note that to keep Spain cheap and competitive, the norm is to work for minimum wage 😀 … You can’t buy a house, you can’t save much money… We do have a pretty decent healthcare and the streets are still safe enough tho.

    20. Ariquitaun on

      El problema de la economia Espaniola, y a traves de ella el desempleo, es que siempre hemos tenido una economia modelo yo-yo. Va y viene. Una de cal y otra de arena. Hay poco fundamento industrial y de servicios y depende mucho del turismo, que crea empleo precario y de baja calidad.

    21. thombo-1 on

      First I’m not surprised to see this in The Guardian, who would try and extrapolate this approach to every major country in Europe if they could 

      And

      Second, the profile of many immigrants to Spain are from South America and share the same language and religion as the current inhabitants. It would be like if the UK started welcoming people en masse from the USA and Australia, but that isn’t exactly the case.

      I don’t want to talk too much about immigration politics here but I can’t stand disingenuous arguments like this.

    22. Inevitable_Equal_804 on

      Spanish here, migration has only benefitted companies and landlords, Latinamericans accept shitty jobs and overpay (they share a 60 m2 house with 8 different persons). This has caused a birthrate decrease and has also postponed the average age when young spaniards leave their parents house.

      Macroeconomically it may be good but when you zoom in you’ll notice that lts one of the reasons why the younger generation (with uni degrees) are emigrating

    23. Future-Wonder-7718 on

      ‘Unemployment has fallen to lowest level since 2008’ specifically because if you have a season job like in a restaurant that closes for the winter, a school that closes for the summer, a job in agriculture where you might only work for harvesting season or similar you might be unemployed and receiving state benefits – but you are not counted as unemployed because you are expected to get back to work as soon as the company opens for the next season. Companies have been forced to change their empoyees to this ‘interupted continues employment’ contracts by law starting 2022 which has resulted in en huge decrease in the way unemployment is accounted for.