Posted on 11/19/2004 6:56:26 PM PST by Pikamax
Immigration surge fuels racism in Spain
Abuse of footballers 'not an isolated incident'
Giles Tremlett in Madrid Saturday November 20, 2004 The Guardian
Official condemnation of the racist barracking suffered by England footballers in Spain this week cannot hide the fact that xenophobia is on the rise in a country now Europe's biggest magnet for immigrants, Spanish anti-racism campaigners warned yesterday. "A few years ago it was bad to be a racist ... now there is more impunity," complained Begona Sáñchez, a spokeswoman for the SOS Racismo group. "This is not an isolated incident. It is a signal that, although the vast majority of Spaniards are not racists, this is something that is consolidating here."
Campaigners welcomed the condemnation that eventually came from the Spanish authorities. But they warned that it was time that Spaniards, who were mostly upset that anybody should think they might be racists, took the threat seriously.
"We have a problem with racism," said Esteban Ibarra of the Movement Against Intolerance. "Either this is stemmed now, or something grave will happen."
But many, if not most, Spaniards remained convinced yesterday that neither they, nor their country, nor the national soccer coach, Luis Aragonés could be described as racist.
Racism is difficult to measure in Spain, where there is no equivalent of the Commission for Racial Equality. The social affairs, justice and interior ministries, as well as the body responsible for Spanish courts, the National Council of Judicial Power, all admitted yesterday that they did not keep figures on racist incidents.
"We calculate that there are more than 1,000 racist attacks every year. There has been no adequate following of this, however, by governments," Mr Ibarra explained.
Warnings have, however, come from several fronts. Amnesty International, for example, dedicated a report two years ago to racial abuse and torture by Spanish police.
The report detailed cases of deaths, rape, sexual assault and violence against foreigners while in custody, and lamented the impunity enjoyed by those responsible.
Amnesty's allegations, however, fell on deaf ears. They were dismissed as containing "major inaccuracies" by the then interior minister, Mariano Rajoy, now leader of the opposition conservative People's party. A survey by the state-owned Centre for Social Investigation discovered recently that one in four young people thought there were too many illegal immigrants.
Spain, with a buoyant economy and historically low birth-rate, is the main destination for immigrants into Europe.
Last year it took in 600,000 immigrants, a third of the EU total and five times as many as Britain. The country's 3.3 million immigrants now account for 7.5% of the population, and most have arrived in the past three or four years. Madrid's immigrant population has increased from 3% to 14% in just four years.
A walk around the city's Lavapies district, the most culturally mixed place in Spain, yesterday revealed varying opinions on whether racism was a problem. On Meson de Paredes street, lined with garment wholesalers run by Chinese, Moroccans, Indians and Africans, the general feeling was that Spaniards were less racist than other Europeans.
"I have lived in Britain, Germany and Switzerland and I find that there is more respect for me here as a foreigner than in any of those places," said an Indian shopkeeper, Rajiv Arora.
Ali Jaffar, an Iraqi, said: "Even after the Madrid train bombings I didn't feel, as an Arab, that people were being nasty to me. In fact, many people actually tried to make me feel better." But a crowd of young Senegalese men disagreed. "There is a lot of racism," said one. "People tell me to go home to my own country. The old people are the worst."
Yesterday the blame for Wednesday's events was being pinned on a few neo-fascist football fans - though El País newspaper had reported that those making monkey noises were several thousand mainly young men from Madrid.
Well the DUTCH Problem seems to be spreading !!
How long before the racism and "xenophobia" of Europe is blamed on Bush and the Red staters? May have already been written somewhere and missed it.
It's Bush's fault!
Diversity is perversity™. And multiculturalism will be the death of Western Civilization, all too soon enough.
"Racist" has become a meaningless word. Maybe these people just don't like their country being invaded. That makes them "racist"?
No, the Spanish were making monkey noises at the British black athletes. But either way you slice it, the Spanish were behaving very racist... not simply anti-immigrant.
I thought it was the English football fans that made monkey noises at the British black athletes.
xenophobia, is that a fear of the old tube (valve) radios?
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