| Abstract: | A unified immigration policy is one of the prerequisites for establishing the free movement of people within the European Union (EU). This paper considers the difficulties in establishing a joint policy on the free movement of people within the EU by focusing upon changing immigration policies in Spain. By comparing Spain, a country of only recent, small-scale immigration, to Germany, a country with a longer history of non-European immigration, obstacles to developing and effectively implementing coordinated immigration policies among EU members can be elucidated. The administrative control of entry, estimates of legal and illegal immigrants in the country, and the status of bilateral relations with Morocco are examined in order to highlight the political difficulties encountered in a unified immigration policy both within Spanish society and for the EU. Spain is both a threshold to the EU and a destination. Border control may be the easiest part of implementing a joint immigration policy in the EU. It is more difficult to control settlement. In addition, high rates of unemployment may result among the native host country populations as immigrants more readily accept low-skilled, low-paying jobs. |
