A survey in Spain found some 80.5 percent of individuals aged 17 – 25 reject the socialist government’s mass amnesty plans for half a million illegal migrants, the digital newspaper El Español reported on Sunday.
The survey was conducted by the polling and research firm SocioMétrica for El Español between April 15 and 18 — the same week that the socialist government led by Prime Minster Pedro Sánchez began its mass amnesty process to benefit 500,000 illegal migrants in Spain with legal residence and work permits.
The Spanish government launched the highly criticized amnesty process despite a fierce rejection from the nation’s population and parliament.
El Español detailed that, per SocioMétrica‘s findings, the measure is not just overwhelmingly rejected by the Spanish youth, but by the Spanish population in general, with 66.7 percent of respondents expressing to be against the mass amnesty plans against roughly one third of respondents who expressed to be in favor of it.
The rejection is noticeably higher among members of the center-right People’s Party (PP) and near-unanimous among members of the anti-mass migration VOX party, with 85 percent of PP members and 97.5 percent of Vox members expressing their rejection.
Despite widespread rejection to the measure, the Spanish socialist government executed the ongoing mass amnesty plans through a Royal Decree, which allows the socialist government to bypass the need from parliamentary approval, where Sánchez did not had enough votes to get it approved.
SocioMétrica found that 72 percent of respondents expressed their concerns that the amnesty will have a “pull effect” that attracts more illegal immigrants to Spain in the hope of obtaining a residence permit like the half a million that will soon receive said benefits.
Notably, the sentiment is also shared by 40.7 percent of respondents that voted for the ruling Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE), who also said that they have concerns over the “pull effect” that the amnesty could generate.
Additionally, SocioMétrica found that an overwhelming majority does not believe in the Spanish government’s claims that injecting hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants into the nation’s labor market “will help ensure the sustainability of pensions” in light of Spain’s low birth rate. 65.7 percent of respondents said that mass regularization of illegals “will not help the sustainability of pensions.”
El Español published the survey hours after Prime Minister Sánchez attributed criticism of his mass amnesty plans to “xenophobia” against migrants during his participation at an international gathering of progressive heads of state and politicians in Madrid.
“Here in Spain, we are approving and promoting a process to regularize the status of half a million immigrants,” Sánchez said on Saturday. ”
And I want to tell the right and the far right who oppose this that Spain is a product of migration and will not be a mother of xenophobia.”
Read the full article here