Meet the Neighbours

The local town hall elections may be the only ones that resident Europeans can vote in, but there are many other residents who do not have the vote at all.  The population of Tenerife has multiplied by about 40 times in the last two centuries, and much of that growth has been due to immigration.  The Canary Islands have received back many thousands of families whose predecessors once left the islands for South America.  The islands’ hub position has meant that they have been a natural economic draw for Moroccans and other Africans, while the enviable lifestyle they can offer has been irresistible for those within Europe’s ever growing borders. 

With such numbers it is no surprise that political parties now actively seek the immigrant vote.  Many South Americans can claim Spanish nationality after living and working legally in the country. On top of those numbers are those from other European Union countries. 

This makes for a very cosmopolitan environment, and the acceptance of all these foreigners says much about Canarian tolerance.  But high levels of immigration are as much of a Spanish phenomenon as one exclusive to the islands.  With roughly 11% of the European Union's population and about 10% its GDP, Spain accounts for around 25% of Europe's immigration.
 

Home sweet home... in Tenerife

Up to the end of Franco’s rule, the direction of human traffic moved away from the Canaries.  In the United States, during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, they mainly settled in the Spanish colonies of Louisiana, Florida and Texas, where they were known as Isleños. The Isleños still speak the Canarian dialect of Spanish and have annual festivals in Louisiana to celebrate their heritage.

Emigration to South America was much more prevalent.  Cuba, Mexico, Argentina, Uruguay and Puerto Rico were the main destinations. Canarian people greatly influenced the Cuban culture; typical Cuban industries such as tobacco and sugar were very Canarian enterprises. In Puerto Rico various villages were founded by Canarian settlers, whereas, in Uruguay, it was Canarians who founded their capital, Montevideo.  In Venezuela, islanders once made up over half of the population.

It is no surprise that when these Latin American countries suffered economic hardship and political uncertainty, the Canaries symbolised a home that they could return to. Looking around Tenerife, it’s not hard to find evidence of them, even if your Spanish is not strong enough to pick up the difference in accents.  Numerous returnees brought back the tastes and sounds of the New World.  There are many Areperas on the island, which specialise in this Venezuelan snack made of corn meal.  In music, the island shares much with South America: Salsa, Merengue and, more recently, Reggaeton have all been brought across the Atlantic Ocean, and have fused with local styles.   
 

Although South Americans make up the largest population of foreign residents in Tenerife, they are by no means the only ones.  Spanish from the mainland have also settled in the Canaries, many brought over by companies to fill a shortage of skilled and managerial roles.  Many others, like their counterparts from the UK, Germany and Ireland simply liked the island, and stayed.  But still there was a constant demand for cheap labour which had to be filled, and other nationalities from continental Africa and even Asia were willing to fill them.  Tourism and construction, which together make up about half of Tenerife’s output, employ many workers in unpopular and badly paid jobs. 

In a recent study it was found that about 27% of legal immigrants are employed in cleaning compared to only 6% of Spain's employable population and 11% in restaurant work compared 1% of Spain's eligible.  Indeed some economists suggest that Spain has come to rely on foreign workers to pay for the cost of unemployment, rather than take the politically unpopular move of lowering benefits which, they say, may force more people back to work.  It is estimated that immigrants contribute over 1 billion Euros to the Social Security system.  However, the policy may be beginning to backfire with a slowdown in construction causing these very same workers to become unemployed themselves.  In the current economic climate, controversial government policies allow lump sum social security payments to these immigrants if they return home.
 

Another much quoted benefit of the lax attitude to immigration is in the Pensions crisis, which is also a huge problem for countries such as the UK and Ireland.  At 0.7 children per woman, Spain has one of the lowest birth rates in the world, and to keep the Spanish pension system from bankrupting, immigrants will have to make up 20 percent of Spain’s population by 2030. Today’s immigrants also tend to have more babies than native Spanish people, and this is seen as another benefit for the future.  Spain’s demographic crisis is so troubling that at the end of 2007 the government promised a cash payout for every newborn child, as an incentive to boost the birth rate.  But not everyone thinks that immigration is a solution to the problem.  They argue that the short term injection of cash into the system by today’s immigrants is concealing a greater problem. The present immigrants will retire at precisely the same time as the native Spanish baby boomers, causing even greater strain on the system.

Despite the benefits of immigration, there are consequences, and as the economy becomes slower, these become more obvious.  As local people’s jobs become less stable, immigrants are likely to become the most obvious scapegoat.  Aware of the political ramifications, there is an increased will to stem the tide of immigration from non-European countries.
 

In all, there are now almost a quarter of a million foreign residents in the Canary Islands – nearly one in every 8 inhabitants.  Fifty thousand people come to live in the islands every year, 20,000 of them from outside the European Union. This population increase, according to the official figures, has brought the population density to 528 inhabitants per square kilometre, a figure only surpassed by Madrid.

Of these foreign residents, there are 20,000 British people registered in the system.  However, as the British Consulate will freely admit, this is a misleading figure and the numbers are far greater.  Many thousands of British and Irish people are not properly registered, and they occupy all levels of society.  From retired people, who receive pensions from overseas to the thousands of workers in bars and restaurants, many people have simply not felt the need to become part of the official system.  With no barriers to living here, because Tenerife is part of the European Community, a substantial number of people simply can’t be bothered.  However, recent drives to reduce the number of unregistered workers by workplace inspections is starting to have an effect, forcing employers to regularise their employees.  Estimates of how many actual British and Irish residents there are vary widely, with some suggesting that the true figure could be as many as four times the number of those officially registered.  Slightly more accurate estimates have put the number of British owned homes at 42,000, of which the vast majority are in the south of the island.