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Regularizing Undocumented Migrants and Building Community in Spain, 1985-2005
| Southern Europe has received a growing number of undocumented migrants since the 1970s. At different times and through various means, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and Spain have made use of national regularization processes to cope with the thousands of undocumented workers living and working within their borders.
This paper explores how undocumented Muslim migrants in Spain, predominantly persons from Morocco and Pakistan, have employed five national regularizations since 1985 to promote the rights of immigrants and build community. The paper argues that these top-down regularizations contributed, paradoxically, to grassroots community activism and bolstered immigrant political participation.
Announced without warning, the five regularizations took the immigrant communities by surprise. Nevertheless, together with trade unions and an assortment of charities, they were able to organize and spread information effectively, and help legalize a great number of undocumented workers. At the same time, community groups and their leaders were able to use the opportunity of the regularizations to gain visibility in their communities and advance sometimes contradictory agendas.
A historical comparison of the five regularizations shows immigrants have become more active in lobbying for rights and status. So while in 1985 during the first regularization, native Spanish pro-immigrant groups spoke for immigrants because they did not have associations of their own, in 1991 during the second regularization, the Moroccan Immigrant Workers Association (founded in 1989) played a key role, and in 1996 during the third regularization, the Ibn Batuta Association (founded in 1994) was centre. In 2000 and 2005, during the fourth and fifth regularizations, undocumented Pakistani migrants led a sanctuary movement in Barcelona churches, while other immigrant organizations effectively lobbied the government to modify immigration law.
Because of this strategy of participation and engagement in the political process, Muslim migrants have challenged the legal restrictions placed on them by the Spanish government, expanded their legally documented numbers, and organized community which has gone beyond the limited aims of the campaigns for regularization. It is safe to say that today immigrants constitute a viable and permanent lobby whose messages are heard at all levels of government.
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