Ayuso: "Hispanic immigration is not immigration"

MadridAlberto Núñez Feijóo's vague plan to introduce a "points-based visa" to control immigration opened the door to various interpretations within his own party this Monday. And this is fertile ground for Isabel Díaz Ayuso to set the tone for the PP's discourse, with a bold conclusion such as "Hispanic immigration is not immigration." The president of the Community of Madrid thus sought to strengthen historical ties with Latin America, given that in the Spanish capital there are large communities from countries on the other side of the Atlantic that share the Spanish language. "An Argentine or a Venezuelan in Madrid is not an immigrant. They may be for the sake of their papers, but they are not one in any practical sense [sic.]", Ayuso insisted during an interview on Telecinco.

Ayuso's statement is in line with the proposal put forward by the PP leader to prioritise those people who have "a greater capacity for integration" and who "know the culture better", which could reduce the possibilities for migrants depending on their origin. Moroccan, than a Colombian or a Guinean", the PP vice-secretary, Alma Ezcurra, defended herself this Monday in a press conference from the headquarters of Génova, when asked if this model showed that there were first-class immigrants and second-class immigrants. Ezcurra took the opportunity to clarify the words: non-EU citizens, at least for legal purposes... Another thing is that he considers it sister immigration [the Hispanic one] and wants to treat it as such", she stated.

Feijóo gathered the party's regional leaders in Murcia this Sunday to discuss this issue and pledged to make the detailed plan public in the coming weeks. "Things are not perfectly defined. The model is yet to be built," admitted Ezcurra, unable to explain how each requirement or merit—language, academic training, values, interest in a specific labor sector—that they intend to establish for accepting the entry of migrants would be weighted. The president of Andalusia, Juanma Moreno, did venture to say that knowing Spanish should be mandatory to obtain a residence permit. In an interview on Onda Cero, when asked if this is the same thing that Junts per Catalunya is demanding, the PP leader belittled Catalan. "They are different things. There are two languages there. We have one. They put the emphasis on the other co-official language. And what we say is that a universal language like Spanish is important to know," Moreno argued.

This proposal by the PP to develop a points-based visa was already raised by Mariano Rajoy when he was in opposition, although it failed to materialize when he came to power in 2012. Feijóo, in fact, already included it in his electoral manifesto for the July 2023 elections, although details are now yet to be finalized. As several PP leaders pointed out this Monday, it is closely linked to labor market integration, although at the same time Ayuso wanted to clarify that immigrants should not be treated "as simple labor." However, the messages are implicitly focused along these lines, linking them to crime and also to receiving benefits. "There is a percentage of hundreds of thousands of people who receive the minimum living income," said the Madrid president, who used terms like "mandadas" and stated that "a lot of people without a job or benefit are wandering the streets all over Spain."

The ministry that is specifically responsible for ensuring the proper functioning of social benefits and managing the arrival and reception of migrants was quick to respond to Feijóo's proposals this weekend. "The PP is creating a reality that bears no resemblance to the reality in Spain," asserted the Minister of Social Security, Inclusion and Migration, Elma Saiz, in a media address this Monday morning. Núria Rius Montaner–. "Mr. Feijóo says that migrants come to collect a pension from the state, and I tell him that 83 percent of households receiving the minimum living income are Spanish. The rest have a significant presence of minors," the minister stated. Furthermore, Saiz pointed out that to receive benefits like the IMV, it is necessary to have "legal residence of more than one year in Spain."

The Vox Framework

Several Spanish government ministers have attacked the People's Party (PP) for equating their proposals with those of Vox. First Vice President María Jesús Montero described Feijóo's proposed visa proposal as a "whim" and asked that the "human rights of immigrants not be used as a bargaining chip in the ideological battle" with Santiago Abascal's party. "The only thing they're going to achieve is Vox's growth," asserted Minister of the Presidency Félix Bolaños. Speaking at Sumar, Spain's Second Vice President, Yolanda Díaz, predicted that the PP's initiative is contrary to the Constitution and called for the regularization of 500,000 migrants currently being processed in Congress to be expedited.

Ayuso criticized Vox's pressure and defended her claim that she says "what is considered correct." "We can't live thinking about what they'll say to us. The surnames they give us should be the same," she said. For his part, the Andalusian president, Juanma Moreno, did express concern about the fact that the center-right is losing ground across Europe to the far right. "We must put everything in order to avoid the growing xenophobia we have in our country and in Europe and completely cut off the central axis of reference for some political forces to win votes with immigration," Moreno said.