Spain to slash immigration as job queues grow

MADRID
SPAIN, facing rapidly rising unemployment, is to stop issuing visas to most migrant workers, the government said yesterday.
No more visas will be granted to low-skilled workers, such as those employed in restaurants and shops, a spokeswoman for the Labour and Immigration Ministry said.

She said the government would also insist companies prove they cannot fill posts in Spain before bringing in foreign workers.
Labour Minister Celestino Corbacho told reporters on Wednesday the government would cut the number of work visas “to roughly zero” in 2009. “It doesn't seem reasonable that with 2.5 million unemployed we continue to recruit workers from abroad,” said Corbacho, who also wants to pay unemployed foreigners to return to their home countries.

About 180'000 foreign workers came here to Spain last year.
The measure follows another decision to restrict family reunion visas, which the government had said would cut immigration by 40 percent.
Unemployment has jumped by 500'000 in a year to 2.5 million as a construction boom has evaporated, emptying building sites.
Socialist Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who announced an amnesty to about 700'000 illegal immigrants soon after he took office in 2004, has done a U-turn on immigration since winning re-election.

In March's vote, the opposition conservatives won working class support by playing on fears about Spain's growing Muslim community.
Spain's immigrant population has risen to 10 percent of the population from nominal levels a decade ago, with mainly low-paid workers arriving from Latin America, Morocco, Asia, Eastern Europe and sub-Saharan Africa.

Migrant workers built many of the millions of houses that sprung up during Spain's construction boom, but unemployment among foreigners is now higher than among natives.

Economists say the relatively low level of skills among Spain's migrant workforce makes it more difficult to find them jobs outside the building and services sectors.