Barajas Immigration and the Crisis of Precarious Labor

Barajas, the other border: immigration and wages in Spain

While cameras focus on the Ceuta fence, a much larger migratory flow enters every day via Barajas in tourist class. The figure used in economic analyses is of millions of people who arrived on a tourist visa and never returned. The impact on wages is the elephant in the room that no one wants to name.

The Paradox of Ceuta and Barajas

The migratory pressure in Ceuta is real, gritty, and visible. But some argue it is a textbook smokescreen. Television opens every day with the land borders because it sells more and generates visual impact, while the true mass flow does not arrive by sea or jumping fences, but in tourist class. Every day, dozens of flights land in Madrid and Barcelona full of people entering on a tourist visa who never return. They are the so-called 'air passengers,' a silent but constant phenomenon that moves many more people annually than any border crisis in the south.

Who is driving down wages?

The economic debate points out that it is not the migrant person who drives down salaries, but rather those who sign agreements with low wages and design a precarious labor market. The immigrant is the backdrop, the 'punching bag' of the movie. It is argued that the salary of the worker is sunk by a suited businessman, not by the person arriving without papers. Temporary Employment Agencies (ETTs) and placement agencies with their garbage contracts are the back door through which precarity enters. The Spanish production model is one of 'chronic austerity': low wages, expensive housing, and a 'productivity' measured in free hours given to the boss. The eternal precariousness of young people and millennials has been without a future since 2009, and neither the PP nor the PSOE fixed it when they governed.

The role of the parties: VOX, PP and PSOE

It is criticized that VOX jumps on the identity bandwagon to avoid discussing money. It is the stagehand in a concert where the owner of the stadium is financial oligarchy. They give them a guitar to shout against immigration while the millennial watches helplessly as rent devours his paycheck. However, it is also pointed out that VOX is not in Moncloa (the Prime Minister's residence), and that immigration competencies belong to the central government. In communities governed by VOX and PP, business owners are delighted with cheap labor. It is recalled that Abascal was in the PP in 1999, and that VOX bargains with the PP, which has destroyed Spain since then. On the other hand, it is argued that the PSOE acts as the notary of laws, but the owner is the financial ghetto that needs cheap labor for business owners to continue getting rich. There are no lefts or rights; there is a system that sells you the idea of fighting your neighbor while they distribute the excrement.

Why does the public debate insist on looking at the fence when the real problem is the production model? Perhaps the answer lies in the fact that the smokescreen is more profitable than the solution.