62% of the Spanish population thinks Spain has too many immigrants - reality or hyperbole?
February 13, 2008
Brussels suggests the necessity to record foreigners upon their entry in the European Union. The proposed plan includes the possibility of creating an electronic system of authorization to travel to the EU and a register of low risk travelers. The aim of this plan would be to reduce illegal immigration, terrorism and organized crime.
The plan would also require the reinforcement of the Frontex Agency , with the possibility of creating a European body of frontier guardians with a European system of border management in the East and South (Mediterranean).
Citizens of non - EU countries would be registered upon their entry in an EU state, with biometric data such as a face or finger print scan, to control their exit and reduce the possibility of an illegal stay.
Frattini, Vice President of the European Commission, affirms these initiatives will be in place in a period of 5 to 7 years. This plan does not imply a reduction of aid to immigrants in a needy situation; it is just a necessity for regulation and protection.
The President of the Partido Popular of Spain, Mariano Rajoy, has stated that if he becomes the next President of the Government in March, he will expulse any immigrant that commits a crime on Spanish soil. His aim is to “simplify the administrative proceedings to enhance repatriations”.
In a speech in Barcelona last week, the candidate of the PP criticized the existent President of the Government, José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, for “neutralizing the reforms done by his party to expulse foreigners that commit a crime on Spanish soil”. He declared, “When I govern, I will restore the expulsion of foreign criminals, and I will do so even if they have a residents permit in our country, except if the crime is not serious enough and can be purged in Spain”.
Rajoy has also promised to establish an “integration contract” for foreigners in which these will have the same rights as any Spanish, in return they will have to engage themselves to “comply with the Spanish laws, learn the language and respect the Spanish customs” amongst others.
Furthermore, he has specified that the contract will affect any immigrant that wants to “obtain a residents permit in Spain for more than a year” and will include the requisite of “returning to their country of origin if they do not find employment in a determined period of time”.
Moreover, Rajoy has condemned that “never again will their be a mass influx of foreigners” if the PP governs and that “in Spain their will be no more illegal entries”. This was said in reference to Zapatero’s regularization plan of 2005 where 700,000 illegal immigrants were accredited papers.
(C) Photo: nromagna
Written by Sophie · Filed Under Politics
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Immigration appears to be a problem all over the world… Should it even be?