"I am from the land where my children eat"
We are living in a time in which the presence of immigrants has become a political weapon, and when this happens, reasonable thinking and action cease, and the landscape becomes filled with ghosts. But, beyond partisan interests, it is necessary to try to organize this process to avoid all kinds of conflicts, which will increasingly arise if appropriate policies are not implemented.
Whether we are for or against it, we know that, for now, immigration will continue to occur. The imbalances in living standards between countries and continents are too great, so migration, despite the difficulties it often entails, is for now inevitable. The important thing is to see what happens with the arrival of these immigrants, how they adapt to life among us, and what they mean for the future of this country. We already know some things about the evolution of these phenomena: when people come from rich countries, for example, we don't consider them immigrants, but simply foreigners; while it is those from poor countries who apparently cause a nuisance. That is, it is primarily a question of the arrival of a population with lower economic and cultural levels than the locals.
The question is: will they, in the second or third generation, be citizens like the natives? Or, grouped in ghettos, will they continue to present themselves as alien, different groups, and therefore seen as a threat? All of this is crucial to preparing for the future and avoiding conflicts now, given that the growth of people of foreign origin is much greater than that of the natives: in Spain, in the last three decades, the native population has grown by 1.1%, while the foreign population has grown by 18%.
The CIS is currently publishing a monumental work on the social situation in Spain, Spain 2025, This provides us with information on this matter, among many others. What is happening with the second generation of immigrants? In the last 15 years, second-generation immigrants have grown by 34%, and now number around 2.7 million, 6% of the entire population. But among the population aged 0 to 17, they account for 22%, more than one in every five children and young people, increasingly coming from more diverse backgrounds depending on their families' origins. In other words, they are a key population group for the future of our society.
So, what is their situation? What is observed is that second-generation immigrants continue to have a much greater risk of exclusion and poverty than natives, despite their living conditions slightly improving compared to their parents'. Furthermore, it is noted that their educational level has significantly increased compared to the previous generation, and they even have the possibility of going to university. While they are below natives at lower educational levels, they are almost at the same level in terms of reaching higher education. That is to say, despite their low economic levels, their educational efforts are considerable.
In terms of employment, second-generation immigrants have a higher unemployment rate than their parents, but at the same time, their employment level is significantly higher, as they are, in many cases, leaving behind the low-paying jobs so often taken by newcomers. Everything suggests that segmentation is also occurring among them.
What can we conclude from this data? We see that, generally speaking, a portion of second-generation immigrants are becoming more similar to natives in their opportunities and careers, despite having faced more economic and other difficulties in childhood and youth; but they tend to overcome this through considerable educational effort. So, as is already happening, their contribution to our economy and our society, if we do it right, will end up significantly increasing collective wealth and well-being. However, we always give them the full right to be "normal" citizens. And this is now up to us.
It's up to us—how we treat them—to achieve good coexistence. If they must live in ghettos, constantly threatened, the younger generations will harbor the anger and discontent of the marginalized, as has happened so often in France. If, on the other hand, they have the opportunity to progress, to be treated like everyone else, the opposite will happen: "I'm from the land where my children eat," Serrat says he would reply to his mother, who was from Aragon, when someone asked him where he was from. Immigrants often feel more Catalan than anyone else when this has been the land where they left poverty behind. It's up to us, and the policies implemented now, to achieve the necessary integration or create the conditions for future conflicts.
