The PP plans to eliminate the regulation of immigrants due to social or labor roots

A new work visa will be essential to achieve permanence

Immigrants who have been in Spain for two or three years in an illegal situation and intend to regulate their situation by taking advantage of social or labor roots for having obtained a job will no longer be able to do so.  Only in some "very exceptional cases, which will be established in agreement with the autonomous communities and municipalities", will this possibility be maintained.  The PP spokesman on immigration issues, Rafael Hernando, specified yesterday some of the measures that his party intends to approve when the new Government is formed, through the reform of articles 123 to 130 of the Regulation, in force since last June,  that develops the Immigration Law of 2009. "The arraigo has favored illegal immigration and it should only exist as an exceptional system", affirms Hernando.  "It must be limited to try to discourage irregular immigration and encourage circulation, return with the possibility of returning."

 

 Foreign organizations warn that there will be more 'without papers'

 Social roots are accessed basically after staying irregular for three years in Spain and proving that they have been employed for at least one year, and to work, if they have been working illegally for two years and it is shown that one has been working.  Since 2006, the number of people who have achieved permanence due to social or work roots (although the second is a very minority) has increased considerably (7,427, that year; 30,231, in 2007; 66,200, in 2008, and 82,300,  in 2009), until the economic crisis began to take its toll.  Last year they fell to 65,676 and this one, to June 30, 70,684.

 As factors, the crisis is joined by the reduction in the number of irregular people who arrive in Spain due, according to the Socialists, to the measures adopted by the Government, "such as the obligation to enter with a work contract, agreements with countries  of origin of immigrants and the drop in the number of arrivals by boat to around a hundred people a year ", according to sources from the Executive.

 On the other hand, the popular, although they recognize the reduction in irregularity, consider that "measures such as arraigo, the regularization of 2005 or family reunification have favored the arrival of illegal immigrants," Hernando highlights.  "It cannot be that 70,000 people are regulated by roots when there is no employment in the country," he adds.

 The PP also proposes to create "a new temporary job search visa" with which it will be essential to have arrived in the country in order to subsequently access regularization.  Hernando assures that "at least since 2005, around 60% of immigrants who have been regularized entered Spain with a tourist permit."

 Some organizations yesterday put the first buts to the plans of the PP.  Vladimir Paspuel, president of the association of Ecuadorian immigrants Rumiñahui, asks that "current regulations be respected" and hopes that "the progressive currents within the PP can do more."  "You have to think about the people who are living in Spain and do not have documents, and keep the roots for them," says Paspuel.

 The economic head of the State Federation of Immigrant and Refugee Associations (FERINE), Gilberto Torres Martínez, believes that these measures would represent "one more violation of the fundamental rights of immigrants."  "Instead of seeking integration, the situation of immigrants would worsen and, if access to permanent stay is removed due to roots, the number of people in Spain without documents will increase."

 * This article appeared in the print edition of 0025, November 25, 2011.