‘It’s a question of humanity’: how a small Spanish town made headlines over its immigration stance | Spain

Few people in Villamalea, a town of 4,200 people flanked by farmland and nestled among the deep valleys of Central Spain, expect their quiet homes to be featured in the Spanish media this summer.

“I have never been contacted by so many media outlets in my life,” said José Núñez Pérez, the conservative mayor of Villamalea. He added with a laugh: “It made me ask the question: What did we do here?”

Everyone wanted to talk to him about the same subject; A city council motion, approved unanimously and across all parties, calling on the central government to proceed with a stalled offer Regularizing undocumented immigrants in Spain.

“For us, it was the most natural thing in the world,” Núñez Pérez explained as he stood in the town’s central square to greet residents. In recent years, immigrants from around the world have been drawn to Villamalea because of the many jobs on offer.

A steady supply of labor has helped the town become an agricultural heavyweight (around 70% of the mushrooms sold in Spain come from here) and has also transformed Villamalea into a tapestry of wealthy residents with roots stretching back to 32 countries.

That reality trumped party lines for the 11 city council members who supported the motion to issue documents to undocumented immigrants, from Núñez Pérez’s People’s Party to the Socialists to the United Left.

“We didn’t even discuss it, we were all ready right away,” Núñez Pérez said. “There’s a lot of work to be done here. There may even be more; the problem with these companies is that they can’t find enough people to work.”

As the town’s companies considered whether to bring in temporary foreign workers, it made sense to give those already here a fair shot at a foothold. “This is not just an economic issue, it is also a humanitarian issue,” the mayor said.

In late August, European Central Bank President Christine Lagarde the gross domestic product in question Without foreign workers it would have been around 6% lower in Germany in 2019. He said the picture was similar across the eurozone. “Although they represent only 9% of the total workforce in 2022, foreign workers accounted for half of the growth over the past three years.”

A surge in arrivals to Spain, where the Socialist prime minister insists immigration is an opportunity, has helped make the country a bright spot among Europe’s emerging economies.

Recently, even some of immigration’s most ardent critics have acknowledged its necessity; Italian far-right leader Giorgia Meloni, who has long described irregular immigrants as a threat to the future of Europe, told his government in June: will publish Around 500,000 new work visas will be issued for non-EU citizens in the coming years, in addition to the 450,000 that have been distributed since he came to power.

During regularization programs has been used for a long time The EU-wide crackdown on documents in Villamalea, 43 of which were introduced in more than a dozen countries between 1996 and 2008, was also rooted in the town’s history.

For much of the 20th century, town residents had to disperse across Europe in search of work, said Venancio Cuenca Lopéz, president of a local retirees’ association. “Some had papers, but some had no papers, no job offers, nothing,” he said. “We can’t say, ‘Yes, we did, but now we’re against it.’ “We are all human, we need to have some empathy.”

He disputed claims that the regulation would reduce wages. “There are companies that take advantage of undocumented workers, forcing them to work in poor conditions and paying them very little. Then Hispanics cannot work because they are competing with people who get paid peanuts,” he said. “So we streamline these, everyone has the same conditions.”

The Guardian spoke to around 10 residents, all of whom expressed support for the motion. Residents, from retirees who make up about a quarter of the town’s population to about 20% foreign-born, mostly from Morocco or Romania, have shrugged off the far-right’s efforts to downplay diversity. “Everyone has their own life and world here, but when we get together, we all get along,” said María Anguix García.

Officials at Villamalea’s city hall are quick to cite the efforts many are making to promote integration, aware that they are doing so against a backdrop of swirling disinformation about immigration.

“There was a day when people who practiced Islam went to church and learned about the place of worship, then they did the opposite; Catholics went to the mosque and experienced that,” the mayor said. “And about two months later, the five religions that we have in Villamalea came together to pray in the church.”

When media requests flooded in at the beginning of this year, many wanted to know how Núñez Pérez, especially leader Alberto Núñez Feijóo, reconciled his stance with other parties in the conservative People’s Party. increasingly connecting Migration to insecurity.

Across the country, PP politicians have entered governments backed by the far-right, anti-immigrant Vox party. As a result, PP politicians have moved further to the right, leading to movements similar to that recently seen in Jumilla, a town of about 27,000 people; where the PP-led council supported a ban on religious gatherings in public sports centres, which appeared to target Muslims.

Núñez Pérez was angered by this comparison. “I have always said that I am not paid a salary by my party, I am paid by the people of this town,” he said. “There are differences of opinion in my party, as in all parties. But if you look at the broader picture, we are not that different.”

After all, it was PP who did this. more editing programs than other parties Since Spain returned to democracy.

Others in the PP had followed in Núñez Pérez’s footsteps; In late September, the town of Tarazona de la Mancha, about 20 miles (32 km) away, had a similar mix of councilors, although headed by a Socialist mayor. come together They unanimously pass their own motion calling on the central government to issue documents to undocumented immigrants.

Even so, Núñez Pérez knew that being a conservative mayor who supported the regulation had become a “morbid” fascination for many. “But I think it’s the most natural thing; I know what’s going on in my town, we live quietly, we live in peace and we learn from each other,” he said. “In interviews, they always ask me questions about my political party. But just because someone opened fire there doesn’t mean we will all do the same thing.”