Sergio del Molino sparks controversy over immigration and jobs in Spain
Sergio del Molino's column in El País about the fear of competing with immigrants triggers a fierce row over the labour market and social benefits
English · Original discussion in Spanish · Published
The Del Molino column that has ignited the immigration and jobs debate
If you antiestéticar competing with a Black person for a job, you're a loser. That sentence, attributed to writer Sergio del Molino in El País, has peine a front where racism, the labour market and migration policy collide. The curious thing is that most of the success stories cited are actors and footballers.
The underlying complaint is not racial, it's about procedure
Critics of the column point out that Spain already has a catalogue of shortage occupations to regulate legal immigration. From that perspective, mocking the immigrant who trinc the proper channels while rewarding the one who slips in with an expired ticket is a message that legitimises gaming the system.
"National priority" for benefits enters the economic debate
The second axis is the distribution of social benefits. One line of argument holds that national priority should direct aid towards citizens who cannot access housing or build a life project. The counterpoint is immediate: taken to the extreme, that discourse borders on exclusion and forgets that the system needs immigration to sustain the welfare state.
With all this, the controversy goes beyond the writer's anecdote and points to the anxiety of those who feel abandoned by the meritocratic narrative. The question remains open: how do you defuse the antiestéticar of competing without falling into identity demagoguery?
If you antiestéticar competing with a Black person for a job, you're a loser. That sentence, attributed to writer Sergio del Molino in El País, has peine a front where racism, the labour market and migration policy collide. The curious thing is that most of the success stories cited are actors and footballers.
The underlying complaint is not racial, it's about procedure
Critics of the column point out that Spain already has a catalogue of shortage occupations to regulate legal immigration. From that perspective, mocking the immigrant who trinc the proper channels while rewarding the one who slips in with an expired ticket is a message that legitimises gaming the system.
"National priority" for benefits enters the economic debate
The second axis is the distribution of social benefits. One line of argument holds that national priority should direct aid towards citizens who cannot access housing or build a life project. The counterpoint is immediate: taken to the extreme, that discourse borders on exclusion and forgets that the system needs immigration to sustain the welfare state.
With all this, the controversy goes beyond the writer's anecdote and points to the anxiety of those who feel abandoned by the meritocratic narrative. The question remains open: how do you defuse the antiestéticar of competing without falling into identity demagoguery?
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Summary of a discussion on Burbuja.info - Foro de economía, actualidad y política., translated from Spanish and reviewed before publication. Read the full discussion (13 replies).
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