THE INVISIBLE MALAGA (PART 2)

Spain is faced with serious issues concerning immigration and unemployment due to the economic crisis. These issues combined have created negative effects throughout Spain in regards to racism and xenophobia. The African immigrants that we encounter on a daily basis are usually vending cultural artifacts; jewelry, handbags, shoes and then the ones that sell you knockoffs of watches, sunglasses etc. Many of them pass through cafes and restaurants hoping to find a sale from tourists, but in my experience they are often ignored.

To give an idea of the proximity from Spain to Morrocco at the risk of sounding like Sarah Pailin, you can see the borders of Morrocco from the shores of a beach, like Tarifa for example. Morrocconas risk their lives to reach theses shore, piled atop each other on makeshift rowboats, some waking up to find others dead at their side. Women usually spend months exchanging sexual favors in exchange for help in securing their journey, these exchanges normally are very abusive, some having unwanted pregnancies and abortions. Somehow, ironically, they come here only to perform the same types of favors, as alot of the women become prostitutes, beggars, often suffering tremendous abuse in which they cannot seek basic help for fear that they will be deported. There is also a preponderance of immigrants that trek from the sub-saharan of Africa such as Mali, Gambia, Green Cape, Bissau Guinea, Conakry Guinea and Niger, where we know exists some of the most poverty-stricken, AIDS affected, war inflicted parts of the world.

For these very reasons, the Spaniards fear that this race of immigrants only bring deliquency, violence and diseases into their country causing general rejection and ignorance. Spanish television programs such as Callejeros have given us small glimpes into the lives of these immigrants, where they have to run from the police on the streets, police abuse, discrimination and the general stuggles to exist in a new country where you stand out so profoundly while having to remain somewhat invisible.

This type of illegal immigration in Spain though, is a fairly recent issue from the mid-90s and since then steadily increasing. There have been shocking accounts of hate-crimes against immigrants as well as the existence of extremist groups who make appearances at football matches and use violent scare tactics, the lesser of their tactics that we have all witnessed are the grafitti markings all around us. So far, I have seen writings such as DEATH TO MOROS, MOROS=DEATH, MOROS OUT, IMMIGRANTS NO, NAZIS+FASCISM=DEATH TO IMMIGRANTS and many more. The Spanish government has adjusted their immigration policy in terms of the provisions for obtaining legal residency, papers etc. Also they have adopted Plan Africa which involves sending Spanish diplomats to targetted African countries in an attempt to stop the numbers of immigrants arriving in Spain on small precarious boats. However, the numbers continue to increase at an allarming rate and other issues that need to be addressed are those surrounding tolerance and overall awareness concerning immigration.