In a previous article I argued that it is imperative to slow down the pace of our immigration if we want to save social cohesion, given that its impact on housing and schools is devastating. These are not the only public services and infrastructures under pressure, but they are the most critical.
When addressing the issue of how to achieve this, we must insist on a fact that should be evident: that the Catalan population attracting such a high volume of immigration is not at all inevitable, and has little to do with our economy doing well (in fact, it is not doing very well if we measure it as we should: in terms of GDP per capita growth). The proof is that the Basque Country or Aragon, with whom we share the same immigration policies (European and Spanish) and whose economies are doing much better than ours, are experiencing a demographic growth rate that is about a third of ours. If ours were like that of those territories, instead of more than 8 million, we would now be 6.6 million. In this scenario, would our schools and access to housing be less strained? It is undeniable. The fundamental reason for our high demographic growth is that we create too many low-skilled jobs, and we do so because we are betting on sectors that pay little.
However, that workers in certain sectors earn little does not mean they are cheap, because in a welfare state like ours there is no cheap labor: what the client and the employer do not pay, the taxpayer pays. Thus, each food delivery made by a rider from Glovo, UberEats, or any similar company, costs the user about €3, to which must be added about €6 or 7 borne by the restaurant. In total, the company charges about €10. However, it is relatively easy to calculate that, in addition to his salary, the rider in question (and, indirectly, his client) benefits from a subsidy of between €3 and €5 for each delivery, simply by calculating the difference between the taxes he pays and the cost of the public services to which he is entitled. If – as is usual – it is an immigrant from South Asia, the hidden subsidy is much higher, given that the probability of his wife working and paying taxes is much lower than the average.Therefore, the most efficient way to curb our immigration is to ensure that wages better reflect the cost of public services. The most immediate step is to considerably raise the interprofessional minimum wage. In this regard, it is opportune to recall that Sánchez's executives have raised it by 32% in terms of purchasing power (i.e., above price growth), without this being sufficient to curb the exorbitant growth of this type of job; there is, therefore, plenty of room to continue raising it, especially now that it is clear that the increases have not generated unemployment.
The second intervention must refer to seasonal sectors, and very specifically to sun and beach tourism, given that it is a sector that is driving the immigration attraction process with salaries that are not only considerably lower than the average but also require society to take charge of the worker's survival – via unemployment benefits or subsidies of all kinds – during a considerable part of the year. The concept of permanent seasonal employment, as well as the privileged tax treatment for tourism (via reduced VAT), must therefore be reconsidered so that the sector creates fewer jobs, but that they are better paid. In parallel, the reduction of housing supply for tourism is therefore not only opportune in metropolitan areas to increase the supply of long-term housing, but also on the coast, in this case to curb immigration.Finally, a fourth measure – this one in the hands of the Catalan government – should consist of requiring proficiency in the Catalan language for all jobs that have a high component of public service. It is evident that this requirement would make it difficult to fill these positions, but it is precisely in the public interest that employers do not have it so easy.In short, curbing immigration is of public interest, and the mechanisms to achieve it have nothing to do with xenophobia or racism, but with common sense. Unfortunately, the timidity with which we approach this issue makes it foreseeable that – here as elsewhere – xenophobic and racist movements will end up triumphing, which will add damage to social cohesion without truly solving the problem, since, when it comes down to it, they will not pose difficulties to employers in sectors specializing in cheap labor.
