Gemma Pinyol-Jiménez Immigration and integration management in Spain December 2018 Report prepared by Gemma Pinyol-Jiménez with the assistance of Sílvia Caraballo Introduction In the short span of slightly over a decade, Spain has shed its longstanding status as an emigrant country to become a land of immigrants. In the course of its rapid move toward parity with European countries with a longer history of absorbing foreigners, it has even occasionally ranked among the EU’s top receiving states. As a country with a historically hazy migratory policy and an economy largely based on construction and services that has constituted a strong pull factor for intense and diverse incoming mi­gratory flows, Spain is a unique object of study in terms of immigration management. Furthermore, its immigration policy would appear to have undergone few changes during and following the most recent financial crisis and has varied little regardless of the political party in power. Last, but not least, it is worth noting that although Spain was one of the countries hit hardest by the economic turndown and suffered excep­tionally high levels of unemployment as a result, the debate on immigration there has not been profoundly politicised as it has been in other EU Member States. Particularly noteworthy is the absence of any palpable manifestation of anti-immigrant sentiment in Spain to date – even in the context of recent elections in Andalusia, which marked the very first time a xenophobic political party has managed to gain a parliamentary foothold in the country. This report attempts to provide a basic overview of Spain’s approach to immigration management and integration measures implemented in that country over the past www.fes-madrid.org 1