Moving On: Iberia’s New Muslims

marvine howe

ISBON—Mamadu In- djai has given up on LEurope and is heading home to the former Portu- guese colony of Guinea-Bis- sau. The 55-year-old West African has spent the past 19 years in Portugal. Yet all he has to show for his labors are the house he was building for his family back in his ances- tral village of Caio. “I haven’t got the strength to struggle anymore,” Indjai sighs. Efforts to create a hospi- table Iberian Model for im- migrants, largely from former colonies of and Portugal, have been undermined by eco- nomic catastrophe, which has drastically reduced or elimi- nated budgets for integration Mesquita Central de Lisboa, Lisbon Mosque and social services and forced

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many immigrants to leave for their home- , however, the project be- lands or elsewhere. It’s a dramatic reversal came impaled on a grim series of economic of an earlier and promising pattern. At the and social realities and may become another very moment other Europeans had all but victim of the global recession. Yet Iberia’s closed their gates to what was seen as creep- new conservative leaders still pay lip service ing Islamization, Muslim immigrants dis- to the progressive immigration policies covered the Iberian Dream. Barely a decade and look to their former colonies and the ago, Spain and its smaller neighbor, Portu- Islamic world for urgently needed invest- gal, laid out a welcome mat to immigrants. ments and economic help that Europe has Over that period, accorded only on the strictest conditions. Europe’s two newest the economic immigrant destina- Inquisition Redux crisis— tions developed a Slight and wiry, dressed in jeans, a sport more humane means shirt, and a wool cap even on a sweltering unemployment of dealing with an in- day, Indjai tells his story in a café on Lisbon’s around 70 flux of Muslims. The historic Rossio Square, once site of the Inqui- percent in number of Muslims sition and bullfights, now a favorite meet- in Spain was esti- ing place of African immigrants. In 1993, some of spain’s mated at 1.3 million he flew to Italy from Guinea-Bissau to get moroccan in 2010, with the medical care for his inflamed colon, to try to communities— largest community find a job, and to stay with his brother, who from Morocco qua- was working in a tile factory in Bergamo. is driving drupling to 682,000 Spotting his one-month tourist visa, Italian immigrants away. from barely 173,000 authorities ordered his repatriation, via Por- in 2000. In Portugal, tugal. During a several day wait at the Lis- the Muslim community of some 30,000 bon airport for the flight to Guinea-Bissau, ethnic Indians and Africans from former Indaj suffered a severe attack of colitis and colonies was expanded to include several was sent to the hospital for treatment. Be- thousand Pakistanis, Indians, and North cause of his health condition and Portuguese Africans. The Bangladeshis alone increased sympathy for citizens of its former colonies, from 4,000 in 2006 to 10,000 in 2010. Indjai obtained a string of short-term visas, Based on their own experiences as tra- until his status was regularized by a general ditional emigrant nations, Spain and Por- amnesty in 1996. He continued to work for tugal built an elaborate integration process a variety of construction companies with based on the principle of interculturalism. temporary contracts, at the minimum wage This can be loosely defined as the interac- of around €500 ($660) a month. Sharing a tion of different communities with a respect flat with other immigrants from West Af- for cultural diversity, within the framework rica, with three or four people to a room, In- of national law—similar to the American djai was able to send €100 to €150 a month system of hyphenated integration. On the to his family back home

Marvine Howe was a long-time foreign correspondent for The New York Times and is the author of Al-Andalus Rediscovered: Iberia’s New Muslims (Columbia University Press).

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By late 2007, construction work was Immigration to Portugal never drying up in Portugal. Like other immi- reached the heights of Spain, but there grants with only primary education, Indjai has been a similar decline in the foreign became a street hawker, peddling bracelets, population over the last two years. The necklaces, and other trinkets from café to Portuguese press reported a 2 percent café and at the flea market on weekends. decrease in foreign residents for 2011. He could no longer send transfers home, While there is no breakdown on the re- and last year, his wife divorced him, leav- ligion of the departing foreigners, a visit ing their three children with his mother. In to Lisbon’s Central Mosque shows the October 2011, Indjai was informed that he change. In the past, on Friday prayer days, owed a total of €9,000 ($11,870) in social the Rua da Mesquita looked like an Af- security contributions. His only alterna- ro-Asian festival, crowded with women tive was to enroll in the Assisted Program from Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, Sen- for Voluntary Return, which pays airfare egal, and India, dressed in traditional bou- home. Under this program, co-financed by bous and saris and men in white tunics or the Portuguese government and the Ge- multi-colored African shirts. Now notice- neva-based International Organization for ably fewer faithful gather at the mosque, Migrations, there were 2,114 requests for and the party atmosphere is gone. Sheikh repatriation in 2011, of which 594 were ac- David Munir, the popular imam of Lis- cepted. Those figures were expected to have bon’s Central Mosque, who has made a risen in 2012. His application approved, point of reaching out to the broader Portu- Indjai made plans to leave in October after guese population, acknowledges sadly that his last medical appointment. Muslims from India, Pakistan, and Africa In Spain, Said Kirhlani, president of the are leaving Portugal. He estimates atten- Association of Moroccan University Students dance at Friday prayers, which averaged in Madrid, sums up the situation over coffee about 1,000 faithful a couple years ago, is at a popular Puerto del Sol café: “Moroccans down by 10 to 15 percent. know through the media there are no jobs,” he says, “and so they aren’t coming anymore, European Iberia while families here have begun to return.” In There have been momentous changes in his mid-30s, with a youthful, earnest man- Spain and Portugal as the two ancient colo- ner, Kirhlani says Romanians have now re- nial powers turned from fascism to democ- placed Moroccans as the largest foreign com- racy, from among Europe’s most isolated, un- munity in Spain. It is clear that the economic derdeveloped nations into modern consumer crisis—unemployment around 70 percent in societies. Historic rivals, the Iberian neigh- some of Spain’s Moroccan communities—is bors found common affinities as fledgling driving immigrants away. The Spanish Insti- democracies in the mid-1970s. They joined tute of Statistics reported in 2011 that for the European Economic Community in the first time in recent years, more people 1986 and, for the most part, became fervent left the county than entered, and that trend Europeanists. Yet they retained their world increased in the first semester of 2012. Colec- outlook, centuries in the making, reinforc- tivo Ioé, a Spanish think tank that publishes ing ties with their erstwhile colonies in Latin studies on social issues, has been reporting a America and Africa, contributing decisively negative balance for Moroccans since 2010. to their open approach to immigration.

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By the early 1990s, the two Iberian them away. They were mostly Portuguese states seemed poised to recover their stand- government cadres, business people, and ing on the world scene. With an explosion of professionals, including many ethnic Afri- development—thanks in part to funds from cans and Indians who had served in the co- the European Union—the peninsula became lonial administration or fought in the colo- a magnet for immigrants and with the new nial army. Among them were thousands of open border regime across the continent, a Muslims, who comprised modern Portugal’s gateway to the rest of Europe. While they first Islamic communities and have been were already talking of “fortress Europe” in generally assimilated into business, banking, the north, immigrants were welcomed to and other professions. The 1990 Schengen Iberia, with its aging populations, low birth Treaty, which dropped all internal border rate, and urgent need for labor. controls between European countries while Many early immigrants were Muslims imposing visas for all North Africans and from Africa. Other European countries like many other foreigners in most of Europe, France, the United Kingdom, and Ger- sparked the explosion in illegal immigration many, have older to Spain, where the authorities were more and larger Mus- tolerant of undocumented workers and there boat people lim communities, was still the possibility of mass legalizations. have not tried but the recent in- flux of Muslims in Spain’s Boat People to land on Roman Catholic In fact, most Spaniards only realized they portugal’s Spain and Portu- had an immigration problem with the ar- coast because gal carried special rival of the pateras, ramshackle skiffs, bear- significance. Ibe- ing mostly Moroccans and Sub-Saharan Af- that nation’s rians and Muslims ricans starting in 1990. Untold thousands minimum wage cannot forget their perished in the Mediterranean, a treacher- turbulent history. ous eight-mile journey at the narrowest is known to be The Islamic oc- point near . Right-wing media half of spain’s. cupation lasted portrayed the boat people as descendants of from the 8th to the Moros, who had invaded the peninsula the 15th century in some regions and was 1,300 years ago, still an emotional issue for followed by the Christian , the some elements of Spanish opinion. Inquisition, and the mass expulsion of Jews Initially, most Spaniards were sympa- and Muslims, largely extinguishing their thetic to the undocumented migrants, or sin presence for the next 500 years. papeles, and their struggle to reach the Costa Portugal was first inundated by refugees, del Sol. There were numerous tales of in- called retornados, after the independence of dividual heroes, like Father Isidoro Macias, its African colonies in 1975. During decol- who combed the beaches and woods every onization, nearly a million people fled for- night to find boat people and give them mer Portuguese Africa—tens of thousands shelter. At the office of the Franciscan order airlifted from Angola, Mozambique, and of the White Cross in the port of , Portuguese Guinea. They sought refuge in the 62-year-old Franciscan priest, known a small nation of nine million inhabitants, all over Africa as Padre Pateras, stocky with which could not in good conscience turn short grizzled hair, dark bushy brows, and

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 IBERIAN PENINSULA a winning smile, explains that he helps lantic shores, but North Africans say boat Muslim migrants “because after all, Joseph, people have not tried to land on Portu- Mary, and Jesus were immigrants. Like the gal’s coast because that nation’s minimum holy family, today’s immigrants come be- wage is known to be half of Spain’s. Still, cause they’re fleeing dictators and wars, be- Lisbon has had to cope with thousands of cause they are hungry and needy.” undocumented Brazilians, Eastern Euro- Caught off guard by the flood of mi- peans, and Asians, who arrive by plane, grants before the economic tide began to bus, or train with three-month tourist turn, Spanish authorities hastily assembled visas and disappear. They would simply an infrastructure to meet the challenge. The melt into their local ethnic communities government’s lead agency for immigration or more often, move on to Spain and other policy was the Ministry of Labor and Social European countries with more and better- Affairs, which worked with other minis- paying job opportunities. tries and local authorities to provide immi- Portugal has opted for the humanist grants with access to basic social services, approach to immigration, according to the education, and employment. The Spanish national immigration agency, the High Red Cross assumed the main task of fur- Commission for Immigration and Inter- nishing emergency relief to boat people. cultural Dialogue. The hallmark of this Encarna Marquez, who runs one aid group, policy is that all children of immigrants, Algeciras Acoge, attributes this earlier rush regardless of the legal status of their par- to “Africans [who] see television shows ents, have the right to free health care about Europe where everybody has auto- and education. Under the new National- mobiles, where dogs live more comfortably ity Law, foreigners can acquire Portuguese than most Africans, where people walk on citizenship after six years of residency, money, and so they’ll risk everything to compared to eight to ten years in Spain get here.” Marquez, a warm motherly fig- for everyone except Latin Americans, who ure who runs the Acoge office like her own need only two years residency. extended family, says some boat people are Much of Lisbon’s immigrant life is still coming from sub-Saharan Africa, but concentrated in Martim Moniz Plaza, at not in such large numbers and now more the foot of the Mouraria hillside, the me- women than men. She also speaks about the dieval Moorish quarter. Its metamorphosis influx of pregnant women: “Many immi- reflects the different migration patterns grants believe the myth that babies are the in contemporary Portugal. In the early best passport to Spain.” Under Spanish law, 1970s, gypsies and Indians set up shop she explains, babies born in Spain are not on the vast dusty square, turning it into automatically granted citizenship but must a popular flea market. A decade later, city remain in the country for at least a year and officials, imbued with ideas of gentrifica- have one parent with legal status. tion, ousted the hawkers and built a large, characterless shopping center. Its 68 shops Portugal’s Agency were immediately taken over by Indian Remarkably, pateras have not targeted shopkeepers from Mozambique dealing in Portugal’s southern coast, although it is household goods, soon followed by other next to Spain’s Bay of Cadiz. Portuguese Africans. In 1990, a second mall opened generally point to the dangers of their At- with 156 shops, all quickly occupied by

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Africans, Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Bra- ties were no longer politically correct in a zilians, and Chinese. Now Chinese immi- European Union without borders. Wary Eu- grants dominate both centers. ropeans charge that Iberians are soft on im- When Taslim Rana arrived in Lisbon in migrants and press them to defend Europe’s 1990, there were only four other Bangla- southern frontiers. Their main concern is deshis in Portugal, three working in con- that Iberia’s legalized immigrants quickly struction and one as a receptionist. Now, head for other parts of Europe with more job Rana owns three shops in Martim Moniz, opportunities and higher salaries. Madrid featuring electronics, dry goods, and jew- and Lisbon, acquiescing, stepped up their elry, and was leader of the Bangladeshi participation in the European Border Patrol community of some 4,000 people. The frontex, tightening their own controls and short, trim, 44-year-old Muslim entrepre- promising no more mass legalizations. neur, with thinning In Spain’s Justice Ministry, Mercedes hair, says he settled in Rico, former director general of religious spain and Portugal because it is affairs, observes that Spain’s 1992 accords portugal have safe and friendly and with the main religious minorities, “marked a good place to raise closure to 500 years’ expulsion of Muslims been in the his children. Still, he and Jews.” The accords also provide a useful vanguard of adds somewhat sadly, structure for a society with religious plural- european action “nobody is coming, ism and a sizeable Muslim community, she and more people are says. “Specifically, we want to help Muslims to promote leaving—but not for retain their identity while achieving normal political Bangladesh.” Rana relations with the society around them … admits that business that is real integration—not multicultural- dialogue with is terrible at Martim ism or ghettoization.” the islamic Moniz. He plans to This outreach to the Muslim minority world. close all his shops is only one chapter in the ongoing saga of and open an office the ambivalent attitudes of Iberians to- for translating and interpreting Bengali, ward Islam and their own Islamic heritage. Hindi, and Urdu. “But I’m Portuguese and Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist at- staying here, where Muslims don’t have any tacks on the United States, many Spaniards problems,” he stresses. “I just hope we can and even some Portuguese regard Muslims escape the radicalization you see in England with distrust. Negative feelings were re- and other places.” inforced when investigations showed that Islamic radicals—mostly Moroccans—had Dealing With Irregulars attacked five commuter trains in Madrid Confronted by a growing population of ir- on March 11, 2004, killing 191 passengers regular foreigners, Madrid and Lisbon did and wounding 2,000. Nevertheless the what France and other European countries public reacted with remarkable restraint, had done before them—carried out mass distinguishing between a small group of legalizations. The last mega-regularization fanatics and the majority of law-abiding took place in Spain in 2005, involving some Muslims. Still, the relentless waves of 700,000 undocumented immigrants, said pateras had a strongly negative effect on to be a European record. But broad amnes- Spanish public opinion. Polls showed that

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Downloaded from wpj.sagepub.com at COLUMBIA UNIV on December 19, 2014 IBERIAN PENINSULA in 2006, the peak year for boat people, Sampaio says the key objective of the Al- Islamophobia reached its highest level, liance is to support projects that promote with 60 percent of Spaniards holding a understanding and reconciliation among negative opinion of Muslims, up from 37 cultures, in particular between Muslim and percent a year earlier. Western societies. Glossing over past conflicts with Muslims, Spain and Portugal have ac- The Iberian Winter tively developed political, cultural, and Three major developments in 2011 al- commercial relations with the Islamic tered the Iberian scene dramatically: the world to ease local as well as international Arab Spring, national elections, and the tensions. More Iberian politicians and world economic crisis. While the Europe- academics now cast a positive light on the an Union initially watched in frozen awe Islamic occupation, which they contend as unarmed North African youths took to has placed them in a unique position to the streets to defy their autocratic rulers, understand and coexist with their Muslim Spain and Portugal were quick to cham- neighbors. Spain and Portugal have been pion the democratic movements. Spanish in the vanguard of European action to pro- Prime Minister José Luis Zapatero rushed mote political dialogue with the Islamic to Tunisia to offer the revolutionaries world. Through the “Barcelona Process,” Europe’s support. The Spanish Foreign Europe hoped to establish a framework for Secretary was the first foreign dignitary comprehensive relations with Muslims to to praise Morocco’s king for his pledge the south and east. The Barcelona Process, to make “global constitutional reforms.” however, was slow to produce meaningful The Iberians supported the French-led change, obstructed primarily by worsen- NATO effort in Libya but denounced ing Arab-Israeli relations. In 2008, French French-Italian moves to reinstate internal President Nicolas Sarkozy took over the European borders to bar thousands of project, but it was again bogged down by Africans fleeing the fighting. Middle Eastern politics. Iberian youths forcefully demonstrat- Meanwhile, Spain’s Socialist Prime ed their admiration for the North African Minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, revolutionary movement—by emulating launched his own project for an Alliance of it. In Portugal, a group of unemployed Civilizations in his first address to the UN college graduates put half a million people General Assembly in 2004. The real intent into streets around the country—the big- was to try to get the West and the Islamic gest demonstration since Portugal’s 1974 world to start talking to each other under revolution. Calling for more and better the same umbrella. Zapatero persuaded democracy, organizers said they were in- Turkey’s Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan to spired by the revolts in North Africa. A co-sponsor the project, which was formally few weeks later, Spanish university stu- adopted by United Nations on July 14, dents organized street protests in the name 2005. The UN Secretary General named as of “young people without a future.” They High Representative to the Alliance Jorge held mass demonstrations in cities around Sampaio, former president of Portugal. At Spain for “Real Democracy Now,” declar- his Lisbon base, a lemon-colored 19th cen- ing in their manifesto, “The Arab world tury palacete behind the Foreign Ministry, shows us victory is possible.”

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But domestic political realities, “There is a political consensus on mi- spawned by the accelerating recession, gration policy in Portugal,” asserts Roberto soon took precedence. Spain’s conserva- Carneiro, head of the Research Center on tive People’s Party, led by Mariano Rajoy, Peoples and Cultures at Lisbon’s Catholic soundly defeated the Socialists in spring University, adding that the current govern- 2011 regional and municipal elections, ment has not given top priority to immi- then proceeded to chalk up an absolute gration issues but is keen to maintain the majority in national elections in Novem- same open policy and opposes restrictions ber. Likewise, in legislative elections that advocated by other European countries. summer, Portugal’s ruling Socialists were Portugal is again becoming a land of emi- crushed by the conservative Social Demo- grants, as it was in the late 1980s. In re- crats, who formed a coalition government cent months some 115,000 highly qualified with right-wing Christian Democrats. Portuguese have left the country for Brazil, These new administrations have focused Angola, and England. on ways to reduce their alarming deficits While the Iberian states agree on the and bring under con- principle of interculturalism, the economic trol the catastrophic crisis has accentuated differences in public “our budget jobs situation. But attitudes. Spain’s much larger Muslim popu- has been cut in despite stringent lation, composed mainly of North Africans, half, but we see austerity measures, is seen by some as descendants of the ancient Spanish unemploy- Islamic occupiers. There have been occasion- no change in ment topped 25 per- al Islamophobic incidents—protests against policy.” cent, with Portugal the spread of Islamic prayer halls or Muslim at 15 percent. Job- headscarves in public schools—but never ap- lessness is twice as high for immigrants. proaching those in other European countries. As Iberians settle in for what looks like a The Portuguese, on the other hand, have prolonged state of economic emergency, proved generally welcoming to the smaller it appears that many social and cultural Muslim community, mostly hailing from programs may be in jeopardy. While it the favored ethnic Indian minority in former remains unclear whether the conservative Portuguese Africa. leaders would preserve the progressive ap- Responding to rising anti-immigrant proach to immigration, they have aggres- sentiment, Spain’s conservative government sively pursued their outreach to the Arab has brought important changes to immi- World, seeking trade and investments. gration and integration policies. Madrid In Lisbon, Prime Minister Pedro Passos issued a decree this year stipulating that Coelho’s center-right coalition has retained from September 1, all undocumented im- the progressive national immigration agency migrants would be barred from the national and renewed the mandate of its director, Ro- health service and their children denied free sario Farmhouse. The secretary of state for schooling. This attack on the two sacred immigration, Feliciano Barreiras Duarte, cows of Spain’s welfare state—free health publicly praised the agency’s efforts on in- care and education for all—was hotly con- tegration and declared that Portugal would tested by a broad spectrum of the country. maintain its immigration policy, based on Catalonia and its capital of Barcelona, the “responsible regulation and humanism.” Basque country, and Andalucia have said

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“no” to the law. The main labor federations $9 billion project, won by a consortium denounced the ruling as a violation of hu- of Spanish companies over the French, has man rights, and non-governmental agen- become the centerpiece for future develop- cies, like Caritas, have declared they will ment planning. As usual with mega proj- not implement the reform. ects in the region, there were rampant alle- Rajoy’s government, however, has re- gations of corruption. In Madrid, however, newed the mandate of the main institution the deal was seen as justification of Spain’s charged with religious minority relations, Arab policy. While the Foreign Ministry an- the Foundation for Pluralism and Coexis- nounced sweeping cuts in foreign assistance, tence. “Our budget has been cut in half, but it emphasized that aid would be continued we see no change in policy or interruption to “Arab and African states in our programs,” stresses Puerto Garcia going through a demo- Ortiz, the organization’s technical director. cratic transition.” Also, the madrid and The foundation publishes an introductory conservative government lisbon are book on Islam in Spanish and one on the has adopted the Social- turning with Arabic language (jointly with the Casa ists’ foreign policy instru- Arabe). Muslim religious leaders are taught ments, like the Instituto increased Spanish, in cooperation with the Cervantes Cervantes, the Casa Arabe, intensity Institute. Children are taught Arabic and Casa Sefarad-Israel, Casa adults Spanish and Catalan, in coopera- Africa, and Casa Medi- to islamic tion with municipalities, but with the new terraneo—but has given and african austerity, some projects will have to be them a more pragmatic countries as eliminated. Still, the conservative govern- approach. The casas are ment has made a concerted effort to pre- now expected to reduce ex- a way out of serve Spain’s preeminent role in European penditures and whenever the current outreach to the Islamic world. Foreign possible find partners to Minister Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo says share costs of programs. economic Spain will remain in the Alliance of Civili- “There’s been a 180 morass. zations, though there will be a reduction in degree shift,” says Edu- contributions for budgetary reasons. ardo Lopez Busquets, the new Direc- tor General of the Casa Arabe. “Before, Islamic Outreach the Casa Arabe was largely an academic Both Iberian nations have long accorded institution, designed to show Spaniards high priority to relations with North Af- the Arab World. Now we aim to show rica and the Middle East because of their modern Spain to the Arab countries.” dependence on imported energy resources Pointing out his budget is one-tenth and investments in the region. Spain’s new that of his predecessor, Busquets adds, prime minister made his first state visit to “because of the dire economic situation, Morocco, praising the country’s democratic we cannot afford to be an ivory tower.” reforms. At the same time, Spain’s Ministers Indicative of the institute’s new business- for Public Works and Foreign Affairs trav- like spirit is the current intensive Arabic eled to Saudi Arabia to sign contracts for the course, attended by 400 Spaniards, mostly construction and operation of a high-speed personnel connected to Spain’s high speed railway between Mecca and Medina. The railroad project in Saudi Arabia.

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Jose Martin Valenzuela, director of sign that when the situation turns around, the Instituto Cervantes in Lisbon, outlines immigrants will either still be present or the institute’s extensive network, created likely to return. in 1991 by the first Socialist government. Seeking help beyond their natural There are today 77 Cervantes centers—many partners in Europe and Latin America, in the Middle East. Only Damascus has been Madrid and Lisbon are turning with in- closed because of the unrest. “The mission creased intensity to Islamic and African of the Instituto Cervantes is unchanged—to countries as a way out of the current eco- spread Spanish language and culture,” says nomic morass. More Portuguese techni- Valenzuela, emphasizing that all Spanish cians are heading to Algeria and Morocco governments of the right and left have sup- with job contracts, while businesses and ported the non-political institute. skilled workers flock to former colonies By mid-2012, immigration problems Mozambique and Angola. Spain is mov- had virtually disappeared from Iberian ing aggressively to increase bilateral trade headlines, monopolized by the disastrous and investments with Turkey, Morocco, economic situation. Then came a stark re- and the United Arab Emirates. And high minder that Iberia, like much of Europe, is hopes have been raised by Saudi Arabia, faced with an underlying problem that will which sent an important delegation to re- be present even after the economic crisis is cruit Spanish companies to build the New resolved. Reports in both Spain and Portugal Mecca, a metropolis in the desert 12 miles highlighted a continued decline in the birth from the Holy City and served by the new rate to 1.3 children per woman—far below high speed rail link. Sulaimin Al-Fahim, the two children needed for population re- adviser to the Saudi Crown, presented the placement. It is clear that the countries will €34 ($44.8) billion project at a forum in inevitably need to rely on immigrant labor Seville, expressing his government’s ap- whenever recovery might take hold. For this preciation of Spanish professionals, tech- reason, immigration advocates are strug- nology and skills. Adding that his friends gling to preserve their precarious edifice of are also prepared to invest in Spain, the intercultural integration—a vital infrastruc- Saudi delegate emphasized that “the simi- ture that would be difficult, and costly, to larity of cultures makes it easier and more rebuild once dismantled. comfortable to do business with Spain.” Amid the gloomy news of foreign- The time has come, it seems, for Iberi- ers and natives fleeing the troubled pen- ans to reap the interculturalism dividend. insula, a hopeful omen has appeared. The But of even greater importance is for such new European Immigrant Citizens Survey trends to continue—binding Muslims and found that in 2011, migrants were gener- Iberia even more tightly together so that ally more satisfied with their lives in Spain when the turnaround comes, it will be both and Portugal than the average citizen and mutually profitable and comfortable. Such more than migrants in other European ties would inevitably clear the route to a re- countries. It was a strong endorsement turn of those who have fled and retain those of the Iberian Model of integration and a with the foresight to remain. l

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