You don't have to be a sociologist to realize that if the immigrants who arrived this century were to leave by the end of the year, the country would cease to function. Construction would stagnate, the agri-food sector would not be able to pick the fruits or take care of the livestock, we would not see the elderly being brought in wheelchairs to sunbathe and production would plummet.
There are tens of thousands of people who do household chores, take care of the elderly and clean whatever is needed. Most of them are migrants and live in the suburbs of big cities. I have met many who travel by train every day more than a hundred kilometers from their place of work. They support basic pillars of the country.
I don't understand how there can be parties that close the door to those who arrive risking their lives and savings while the demographic curve is in free fall. It is a marginal issue in this campaign of slogans and personal confrontations. They don't want them because they are different and can endanger the cultural, economic and political supremacy of those who think the country belongs to them. We have been a land of alluvium for centuries.
I heard from the demographer Anna Cabré that, without the immigration of the last century, Catalonia would have about two and a half million inhabitants. The harangue in the House of Commons by the conservative deputy Enoch Powell, a cultured man who spoke Greek, is famous and Latin as well as English, in which he proclaimed that immigrants posed such a threat that, like the Romans, we would see a lot of blood down the Tiber. It wasn't like that. The Thames is now running cleaner than ever and the British need more European labour. What a big mistake Brexit was.
We must thank those who came, stayed and integrated, sharing the new citizenship without erasing their roots and their identity of origin. They must be given all the rights and fulfill all the duties. Like everyone else.
Not only are they correcting the declining demographic curve, but the vast majority bring values such as effort, solidarity with their distant families and the desire to overcome themselves. The best investment is for them to enter the education system, provide them with housing and speed up their nationalization so that they can participate in the elections as soon as possible. It must not be forgotten that we all come from fugitives in some way.
