What does Prohens mean by being "from here"?
In recent weeks, one of the racist mantras of the European far right—often adopted even by some on the left, such as the British Labour Party—of defending "jobs for locals" has been reiterated by the highest authority in our region, President Prohens, in various contexts.
First, it was at Fitur, when the CEO of Meliá, Gabriel Escarrer, offered to bring his project to the Balearic Islands to facilitate the hiring of unaccompanied migrant children who have left the country—that is, those young people who arrive by boat in the Canary Islands and who, once they turn 18, are usually abandoned by the authorities. Suddenly, the president came out to question the offer, because "locals come first." I would like to see the same forcefulness when hoteliers say they oppose the increase in the tourist tax. But no.
More recently, in the Catalan Parliament, the PP has joined another of Vox's xenophobic and poisonous initiatives, demanding incentives and tax breaks for those who hire "Spaniards instead of immigrants," as if those who migrate from any other territory, national or foreign, were not immigrants.
All this is nothing new. A century and a half before Trump, in a country made up of settlers and immigrants like the United States, the discourse of "America for Americans", a xenophobic cry against the Irish who came to work and were also Catholic. The same thing happened at the beginning of the 20th century, against Italians and Jews, and later against Caribbean and Latin American people… And all the time, against people of African descent, who I suppose were more conveniently targeted by some.British Jobs for British Workers"which Starmer, in a way, maintains; in Germany with the far-right AfD, or in Catalonia with the precedent of Orriols, Plataforma per Catalunya, which warned us that immigrants 'take our jobs and drive down wages.'
having completely given up on changing a tourism model that, besides being unsustainable, requires some 15,000 'extra' people each year, because those we have here aren't enough, especially if we continue breaking tourist records. 600,000 people registered with Social Security. An unemployment rate so incredibly low that some days the Government uses it to boast, and other days, to attack migrants, it seems."
What is the need for all this? Has she listened to what business owners and their employers' associations think about the regularization process, which is entirely in favor? By the way, how many business owners, shopkeepers, etc., "from here" are actually "from here"? I feel bad suspecting that the president knows this, but that she has sided with the far right in a drift that honestly worries me, because I don't know where it's leading us as a human community.
What does the president understand by being "from here"? Where do you draw the line in a land where two out of every four people were born elsewhere—one on the Iberian Peninsula and one in another country—and half of those of us born here are children of immigrants? She will force Vice President Costa to make the far-right members of parliament learn Catalan; what does she propose for immigrants who regularize their status? By the way, how do you plan to do it, given that nowadays, with 50% more population than in 2000, there are fewer resources for learning Catalan than there were then?
Perhaps if our leaders stopped making xenophobic speeches and dedicated themselves to implementing integration and coexistence policies—which have never existed in the Balearic Islands—that fall under their jurisdiction, instead of appealing to 'Daddy Frontex,' perhaps we wouldn't be here. This means working towards mutual understanding and respect, without which it's impossible to belong here or anywhere else, instead of continuing to criminalize immigration. I suppose that if we criminalize them, it's easier for us to accept that more than 1,000 people died or disappeared last year trying to reach our shores. All this, without public condolences or moments of silence. Perhaps it's because corpses are inconvenient in the tourist superpower that we are. Or perhaps because they weren't 'from there.'
Spitting out this kind of rhetoric is wrong in any context, but doing so here, and continuing to talk about 'immigration' in the third person, as if it were a UFO, in the Balearic Islands, is as delusional as it is irresponsible. Seriously, let's stop polluting social harmony from positions of power. Let's leave in peace those who simply want to work and enjoy a decent life, and let's focus on building community.
