Description

The Spanish economic crisis has ended a decade of spectacular economic and demographic growth. Despite having been one of main drivers of economic growth in the years preceding the crash, immigrants have borne the brunt of the shock, as reflected in their disproportionate share in Spain’s rising unemployment rate. The aim of the presentation is to assess the consequences of the economic crisis on immigrants in Spain through an analysis of recent changes in Spanish immigration policy and shifts in public opinion toward immigration. Potential solutions to problems concerning the admission of economic immigrants and integration will also be discussed, as will be the Spanish state’s turn to Canada as a source of guidance in this regard.

Claudia Finotelli is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the Universidad Complutense Madrid and Senior Researcher at the Instituto Universitario Ortega y Gasset. She has a PhD in Political Science from the University of Münster. Her research interests cover the area of migration control policies, irregular migration, asylum policy and economic integration of immigrants. Professor Finotelli is a member of the IMISCOE-network of excellence and has collaborated with the Institute for Migration and Intercultural Studies of Osnabrück, the Cespi Institute in Rome, the University of Trento and the Forum of Federations in Ottawa. Her publications include: “The North-South Myth Revised: A Comparison of the Italian and German Migration Regimes,” West European Politics, VOL. 32, No. 5 (2009); “The Importance of Being Southern: The Making of Policies of Immigration Control in Italy,” European Journal of Migration and Law, VOL. 11, No. 2 (2009); “Italia, España y el modelo migratorio mediterráneo en el siglo XXI”, ARI VOL. 58 (2007); “Looking for the European Soft Underbelly: Visa Policies and Amnesties for Irregular Migrants in Germany and in Italy” (with Giuseppe Sciortino), in Herausforderung Migration – Perspektiven der vergleichenden Politikwissenschaft, ed. S. Baringhorst, J. F. Hollifield and U. Hunger (Münster: LIT, 2006); “Regularisations for Illegal Migrants in Italy: Background, Processes, Results,” in Amnesty for Illegal Migrants? Transatlantic Discourse on Integration, ed. Friedrich Heckmann and Tanja Wunderlich (Bamberg: EFMS, 2005).