Every time we talk about immigration we make a mistake. We speak of a single immigration when, in reality, there are two. And both pursue completely different objectives.The first is labor immigration. Its purpose is to incorporate workers where the market needs them. Spain needs it. Our population is aging, there is a shortage of professionals in numerous sectors, and a good part of the recent economic growth is explained precisely by the increase in the active population. Denying this is ignoring reality.The second is welcoming immigration. It is formed by people fleeing a war, persecution, violence, or extreme situations of exclusion. Here the criterion is no longer economic. It is moral. A democratic society must reserve resources to protect those who need them most.The problem is that politically we manage them by mixing them up. Labor immigration should respond, above all, to the needs of the labor market. What professional profiles do we need? In which sectors? With what integration conditions? Reception immigration should respond to a completely different question: how many people can we serve with dignity with the available resources?Australia and New Zealand are among the developed countries with a higher percentage of immigration. They are not closed societies. Quite the opposite. But they differentiate very clearly between labor immigration and humanitarian immigration. In the first case, residency remains closely linked to employment. If the employment link disappears and another job is not found within a reasonable period, the person is forced to leave the country. In a period of between three and six months. If you do not leave, you pay the cost of deportation and for three years you cannot re-enter the country. Result, very few people in overstay (illegal status). This does not prevent maintaining humanitarian reception programs. It simply avoids managing two completely different realities with the same criteria.Last year, in Spain, there were 840,000 immigrants in an irregular situation. Only 50,000 departures were ordered. And, finally, in two years only 8,000 were executed. Then there are the countless options offered to the immigrant without a job to stay: socio-formative roots, social roots, second chance roots...It is quite easy to stay in Spain without working. And I am sorry, but that cannot be. One comes here to do tourism and leave money, to work and contribute, and, only if appropriate, to be welcomed out of solidarity.We should manage labor immigration with a firm hand. Reception immigration, with an outstretched hand, but limited to a maximum number that we can assume and sustain.Labor immigration and reception immigration. Both are necessary. But let us not design one with the mechanisms of the other. Because then things like what happened in Ceuta occur.
