Spain

Is a British-style devaluation really what Spain needs?

Paul Krugman argues that a benefit for Britain of keeping the pound is that it has been able to devalue – unlike, for instance, Spain, which is part of the euro – and illustrates the point with a chart that shows the 20% devaluation of the UK’s real exchange rate since the crisis hit.

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Fine. But a fall in the real exchange rate is just a means to an end: the real aim is to boost net exports and consequently swing the current-account deficit towards balance.

And here’s the thing: despite Britain’s devaluation, neither its trade deficit nor its current-account deficit have shrunk. Astonishingly, in a slump Britain’s current-account deficit has actually widened, from 2.3% of GDP in 2007 to 3.5% of GDP last year.

In Spain, in contrast, there has been a huge improvement in both the trade and the current-account balance. A current-account deficit of 10% of GDP in 2007 had shrunk to 1.1% of GDP by last year.

To which Krugman would doubtless retort: that’s because domestic demand has collapsed and with it imports.

Yes, imports have fallen – and I agree with Krugman that the excessive austerity in Spain has been a huge mistake (as, I would add, has the failure to fix the banking system).

But the volume of Spanish exports – even without devaluation – has also soared, as the chart shows. In Britain, in contrast, export volumes are scarcely higher than before the devaluation.

Export volumes

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Source: Eurostat, Exports and imports by the EU countries and by third countries – volumes [nama_exi_k]

So is a British-style devaluation really what Spain needs?

 

Immigrants? Not us – we’re British

There is an interesting article in The Times about Brits who had been living in Spain returning home because of the economic crisis.

Tellingly, though, they are referred to as "expats" throughout.

It seems that British people abroad aren't migrants, or worse still immigrants.

That's a term we reserve for nasty foreigners.

27 children in a boat

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Photo by Sergio Betancort © Prisacom S.A. From El Pais.com

They came from North Africa and reached Europe: the Canary Island of Lanzarote, Spain

Spain attracts most immigrants in EU in 2007

Net immigration to the EU – immigrants less emigrants – was 1.9 million in 2007, according to Eurostat. Since the EU population is just shy of 500 million, the immigration rate was 0.38%.

Spain had the highest level of net immigration: 702,000; Italy was second, with 494,000; Britain third, with 175,000. The Netherlands experienced net emigration, with 1,600 more people leaving than arriving.

Spain to toughen immigration laws

Spain’s Socialist government is planning to tighten the country’s immigration laws. It wants to limit the right of immigrants who are not yet permanent residents to bring their parents to live in Spain and to extend the length of time illegal immigrants are detained from 40 days to 60.

The right-wing opposition, the Partido Popular, wants to impose even stricter limits on family reunification, raise the detention of illegal migrants to 70 days, and force immigrants to sign up to an integration contract obliging them to learn Spanish and respect Spanish customs.

Full story, in Spain, in El Pais.

Breach in the fence

20081026elpepunac_6A section of the border fence around the Spanish enclave of Melilla in North Africa has been torn down by a violent storm.
Perhaps the elements don’t look favourably on this unnatural barrier.

Aid for immigration?

It is well known that the money that immigrants send home is the biggest – and best-targeted – source of development aid to poor countries. But immigration can also spur an increase in official government aid – in a bid to improve conditions in poor countries and thus deter their citizens from migrating.

El Pais reports that Spanish aid to Africa has soared in recent years in response to the rising numbers of Africans who risk their lives on flimsy boats to try to reach Europe’s southern gateway.

Another day in Europe’s war on immigration

1. Nine young children and six adults have died, with four more in a very serious state, in the latest tragic attempt by Africans to reach Europe. Full article in Spanish at El Pais; photos here.

2. The European Parliament has passed a motion demanding that the Berlusconi government stop collecting the fingerprints of gypsies in Italy, who are the targets of an increasingly violent anti-immigrant backlash. El Pais has the full story.

3. A 32-year old Moroccan woman, who is married to a Frenchman and has 3 children who were born in France, has had her normally automatic request for French citizenship denied for wearing a burqa, which France’s constutional council deems "incompatible with the fundamental values of the French community, and notably equality between men and women." Full article in French in Le Monde.

18 meses de cárcel por buscar una vida mejor

Europa se dice civilizada, un continente de derechos humanos, de libertad y solidaridad. ¿Cómo, entonces, se justifica la nueva directiva de retorno de los inmigrantes sin papeles, aprobada por los ministros del Interior de la UE, que permite detener a los inmigrantes indocumentados hasta 18 meses? Un año y medio en, seamos honestos, ¡la cárcel! ¿Y por qué? Por atreverse a cruzar una frontera en busca de una vida mejor.

Eso no puede ser justo. Los inmigrantes indocumentados no son criminales ni un ejército invasor, son seres humanos menos afortunados que nosotros. Vienen a satisfacer la enorme demanda de mano de obra necesaria para hacer los trabajos que nosotros no queremos hacer; pero no les permitimos hacerlo de manera legal.

Esa directiva, y los controles más estrictos, no sólo son crueles y costosos, sino también inefectivos y contraproducentes. Los muros de Ceuta y Melilla no impiden pasar a la gente, como tampoco lo hizo el muro de Berlín. Cada año miles de personas mueren tratando de llegar hasta Europa, así que encerrar durante 18 meses a algunos de los que lo consiguen no va a impedir la inmigración ilegal. Ya hay millones de indocumentados en Europa, y detenerlos y expulsarlos es imposible. ¿No sería mejor que legalizásemos y regulásemos la inmigración?

El Parlamento Europeo debería rechazar hoy la directiva de retorno. El control cada vez más estricto de las fronteras crea más problemas de los que soluciona. En vez de proteger a la sociedad, multiplican los controles que fracturan y corroen el respeto por la ley y el orden. Si seguimos así, con el tiempo llegaremos a un Estado policiaco. ¿Es ésa la Europa del futuro que queremos?

More Spanish coverage

Toumaï, la revista para los inmigrantes, reports on the Spanish launch of Inmigrantes

Also, Público, a Spanish daily, has published my article on why the EU directive that would allow irregular migrants to be locked up for 18 months, is unfair and misconceived. 

Inmigrantes: Tu país los necesita

I’m delighted that Immigrants: Your Country Needs Them is being published in Spanish by Intermón Oxfam. The official launch is on 11 June at the Madrid Book Fair, where I’ll be speaking (in Spanish).

The Spanish-speaking world is at the heart of the global debate about migration. Mexico is the biggest source of emigrants in the world, and the money they send home exceeds what the economy receives in foreign direct investment.

Spain was until recently a country of emigration too, but its economic success has transformed it into
one of immigration. In fact, it has received more migrants in recent years than anywhere else in Europe – and far more, as a share of its population, than the United States has.

Migrants, in turn, have helped drive the economy’s dynamism. Living standards in Spain last year overtook Italy’s: as Italians are loath to admit, Spaniards now do it better.

Far from costing Spaniards their jobs, all these newcomers have contributed to a huge rise in the employment rate. And while the economy has recently taken a turn for worse, immigrants are not to blame: other factors, notably the bursting of a property bubble, are responsible.

In future, Spain will need more migrants, not less, not least because its society is ageing and its economy requires people with different perspectives to help drive innovation and growth.   

Spain is also, in a sense, the gateway to Europe: a stone’s throw – or a boat ride – away from Africa. So its immigration policy matters to the rest of Europe, and its experience to another country with poor neighbours to its south: the United States.

Spain’s experience in Ceuta and Melilla shows that high-tech border walls don’t keep out migrants. Meanwhile, its mass regularisation of illegal migrants in 2005 – call it an amnesty if you prefer – was a huge success, not only for the migrants themselves, but for society as a whole.

All the more reason why one must hope that Spain’s prime minister, José Luis Zapatero, will block Nicolas Sarkozy’s proposals for an EU immigration pact that would commit European governments not to resort to mass regularisation in future.

I’m particularly delighted that Inmigrantes is being published by the development NGO Intermón Oxfam. As they bravely and rightly recognise, migration is at the heart of development.

EU immigration rules that try to prevent Africans from working in Europe are just as unfair as EU trade rules that keep out their farm produce.

Opening up our borders to people from poorer countries would not only do more to help the poor than any other public policy measure; it is a moral imperative.

It is time for other development NGOs, progressive politicians, and all those who believe in human rights, global justice and international solidarity to place freedom of movement for all at the heart of their campaigns.

If you believe the world is unfair and we should do more to help the poor, you should be campaigning to let them work here freely.