Prólogo

Las llamadas migraciones “económicas”, cuya causa genérica es el intento de conseguir el acceso a un mejor nivel de vida, tienen múltiples consecuencias en las áreas jurídica, laboral, educativa, social y cultural que colocan a las poblaciones que emigran en una situación de desventaja con respecto a los nacionales de los países de destino. En este libro se recogen estudios y experiencias que revelan la complejidad que representa emprender un proyecto de vida en un país extranjero. Nos centramos sobre todo en las realidades migratorias de personas de distintas nacionalidades que tienen como destino Europa o Estados Unidos. Los enfoques son diferentes, con el propósito de ofrecer al lector una panorámica que le permita desentrañar diversos componentes, ya sean particulares o comunes, que forman parte del fenómeno migratorio humano.

Los tres primeros capítulos, relacionados con la inmigración marroquí, corresponden a una investigación en proceso, en la que colaboran la Universidad de Princeton y el Instituto Cultura y Sociedad de la Universidad de Navarra. En el primero, Massey y Espinoza muestran los resultados de una investigación comparada del perfil de la inmigración marroquí en EEUU y España. Tras el análisis de numerosas variables se constata que, si bien el nivel de estudios es más alto en las personas marroquíes que emigran a EEUU, éstas tienen menos posibilidades de encontrar un trabajo adecuado a su cualificación que sus homólogos que emigran a España. También se han hallado diferencias en la edad y la situación familiar (varón, joven, sin esposa ni hijos en su mayoría en EEUU, frente a familia con hijos en España) y se ha contrastado el efecto positivo o negativo que tales perfiles tienen sobre las posibilidades de inserción laboral en uno u otro país. Estos y otros elementos, como la mayor o menor probabilidad de encontrar un empleo si se es varón o mujer, nos proporcionan un marco válido para profundizar más en esta población inmigrante con alta representación en España.

Es Montoro Gurich quien, precisamente haciendo hincapié en España, nos explica en el segundo capítulo las variaciones que está experimentando el país en los últimos años con respecto a la población de origen marroquí. Se vislumbra un cambio de tendencia según el cual en esta población, hasta ahora eminentemente masculina y de reagrupación familiar, aumenta la presencia de mujeres solas, cuya motivación para emigrar ya no es familiar sino económica. Señala Montoro Gurich, por otro lado, que tanto si sus motivos son familiares como económicos, se observa en estas mujeres un mayor nivel de estudios. No obstante, se trata de transformaciones todavía en estado incipiente, en las que unas veces influye el número de años que llevan viviendo en España y otras su edad cronológica.

Habrá que estar por lo tanto atentos a estos procesos y habrá que hacerlo sin perder de vista lo que Pons Izquierdo observa en el tercer capítulo, donde se puntualiza que, si bien la cuantificación de la población inmigrante es un aspecto básico para el estudio del fenómeno migratorio, existe una dificultad en la práctica, dado que no está claro quiénes son los inmigrantes. Pons Izquierdo nos descubre los inconvenientes de tomar como criterio cuantificador únicamente el lugar de nacimiento o la nacionalidad y propone la mayor presencia de un componente sociológico que abarque los conceptos de comunidad o de pertenencia étnica. A partir de los datos estadísticos disponibles, realiza el mapa de la inmigración marroquí en España en cuanto a volumen y distribución territorial y destaca cómo la distinta forma de contabilizar a esta población en unas u otras comunidades autónomas enmascara la realidad y hace que los datos obtenidos sean heterogéneos, lo que podría afectar a la validez de las conclusiones.

Como parte de una investigación más amplia sobre la contribución de los sistemas de educación-formación a la inserción laboral de jóvenes en riesgo de exclusión social, el cuarto capítulo, de Sotés Elizalde y Echarri, expone una historia de vida. Se trata del caso de un joven inmigrante procedente del norte de África que llegó a España en circunstancias muy adversas, pero que ha culminado en resultado positivo gracias a la contribución del programa de una escuela taller. Con una trayectoria de cerca de treinta años, las escuelas taller, que forman parte de la actual configuración del sistema de formación para el empleo existente en España, han experimentado un aumento paulatino del alumnado trabajador inmigrante. Este hecho ha significado un reto consistente en conseguir que la formación y la cualificación profesional adquiridas en el programa de escuelas taller se traduzcan en conductas de logro en orden a una vida estable en este país de destino.

Barrios Daudor realiza en el quinto capítulo un estudio, desde la óptica del derecho laboral, que arroja conocimiento en la materia de las prácticas religiosas de los trabajadores musulmanes, dentro de lo que daría en llamarse el islam inmigrado. Tanto los derechos que entran en juego —cuyas fronteras por otra parte son difusas— como el propio acuerdo de cooperación entre el Estado español y la «Comisión Islámica de España» son bastante desconocidos en el ámbito de las relaciones laborales. Las posibilidades y limitaciones que se derivan del derecho fundamental de libertad religiosa y del derecho de la empresa a dirigir la actividad laboral que en ella se realiza llevan al autor a concluir que el principio de proporcionalidad debe estar presente. Para comprobar las particularidades que se pueden encontrar en la actividad laboral ordinaria, Barrios Daudor examina unos y otros tipos de prácticas religiosas de forma específica.

En el sexto capítulo, Velarde, desde la Filosofía del Derecho, aporta reflexiones en torno al concepto de ciudadanía, a su relación con los derechos humanos y a los efectos que su reconocimiento tiene para las personas inmigradas. En todos los estados existen restricciones de derechos para las personas no nacionales; pero además, éstas reciben diferente trato en función de si están de paso o si vienen para quedarse. A través de un recorrido histórico revelador de los pormenores que rodean a estas cuestiones, la autora nos adentra en las raíces de dos conceptos que no son necesariamente sinónimos: inmigrante o extranjero. Elementos como la identidad y sus formas de percibirla, o los fenómenos que generan hoy flujos migratorios, como la globalización por un lado —con una expansión del mercado sin precedentes—, pero sobre todo las desigualdades sociales, son examinados y puestos en relación con otros como la disipación de determinadas fronteras, la percepción de riesgos e inseguridades y el papel de los gobiernos en el manejo de estos sentimientos colectivos.

Fandl, en el capítulo séptimo, es otro de los autores que presenta un amplio elenco de referencias históricas, en esta ocasión acerca del tratamiento legal de la inmigración en EEUU, para, a raíz de ello, proponer cambios que entiende necesarios. Según Fandl, desde que se aprobara la primera ley de inmigración estadounidense, quedando esta materia bajo el control federal, las diferentes reformas han reflejado a su vez los acontecimientos históricos y los contrates de la sociedad americana. El debate sobre si este control debe permanecer o los estados pueden tener sus propias leyes acompaña a las reformas federales. En este sentido, en los últimos años todos los estados han promulgado algún tipo de legislación relacionada con la inmigración para hacer cumplir la ley federal, siendo la normativa mucho más restrictiva en general en los estados de tendencia republicana.

También en EEUU, pero en este caso desde el campo de la sociología, Sánchez R. ha estudiado en el octavo capítulo la inmigración latina y su identidad. Los datos y testimonios que recoge expresan la discordancia existente entre las aspiraciones, motivaciones y expectativas que los latinos tienen para emigrar y la realidad de la sociedad del país receptor, que en su mayoría no los acepta debido a estereotipos preconcebidos y discriminatorios. Se genera así una acentuación de la división de las fronteras sociales entre inmigrantes y nativos, impidiendo libres intercambios entre ambos. Los resultados de un trabajo etnográfico, realizado por la autora con inmigrantes latinos residentes en el corredor urbano del Noreste de EEUU, confirman que hay negociaciones y estrategias sociales que los inmigrantes latinos usan como forma de integrarse en la sociedad americana, y que la identidad latina no es algo que traen consigo sino que se construye y se refuerza en EEUU como reacción ante los mencionados estereotipos.

En los dos siguientes capítulos Stara y Deluigi indagan en la inmigración en Italia, centrándose Stara en la mujer y Delugi en los niños y adolescentes. En relación con las implicaciones que tiene emigrar para la mujer, Stara explica que en Europa la migración femenina supera ya el 50% del total. Si bien en su forma de vida en el país receptor influye tanto la personalidad como la cultura del país de procedencia, hay unas características que comparten muchas mujeres que emigran y que afectan específicamente a su identidad y estado emocional. Una de las más significativas es la separación de sus propios hijos, para dedicarse al cuidado de los hijos de otros. Esto convierte a la mujer inmigrante en una madre transnacional, que mantiene económicamente a los miembros de su familia en el país de origen, pero sin poder disfrutar con ellos de los beneficios o del bienestar que les produce su aportación económica.

De Luigi incide en el estatus que se otorga en Italia tanto a los niños y adolescentes llegados por reagrupación familiar como a la denominada segunda generación, representada por los nacidos en Italia de padres extranjeros, o los niños que han completado el ciclo de educación primaria en este país. Y lo hace desde la perspectiva de la educación intercultural y la cohesión social, teniendo en cuenta aspectos antropológicos, culturales y lingüísticos. El papel de los profesionales de la educación es sustancial en este proceso y necesita ser repensado, de modo que trabajen para transformar la escuela multicultural en escuela intercultural. Destaca asimismo Deluigi la importancia de la elección de los estudios tras haber cursado el primer ciclo de educación secundaria, dado que los logros educativos en este nivel constituyen un importante factor de integración. Diversos condicionantes hacen que los estudiantes de familias procedentes de la inmigración sufran limitaciones a la hora de escoger sus estudios.

Finalmente, a modo de cierre, atendiendo al pasado y al presente y apuntando a preguntas sobre el futuro, tales como si es posible plantear acuerdos globales entre países en materia migratoria en Europa, Garciandía Garmendia trata un tipo de movimiento poblacional de complejo abordaje, como es el que se produce en el ámbito de migración y asilo. Este capítulo da cuenta del largo proceso hacia la consecución del Sistema Europeo Común de Asilo (SECA) y aborda los mecanismos de que dispone la Unión Europea para articular ese sistema. Indica la autora que a pesar de las dificultades que entraña conseguir una aplicación uniforme en todos los países, el mismo hecho de haber integrado las principales propuestas de reforma en un proyecto de gran envergadura como es el SECA, junto con la existencia del Espacio de Libertad, Seguridad y Justicia, significa un avance en orden a garantizar una cierta coherencia y dirección clara.

La publicación de este libro, realizada en el marco del Proyecto de Investigación “Fronteras y Cultura” del Instituto Cultura y Sociedad de la Universidad de Navarra, ha contado con la colaboración de la Fundación La Caixa. Agradezco a ambas entidades su apoyo a esta investigación.

María Ángeles Sotés-Elizalde

Investigadora del Instituto Cultura y Sociedad

Universidad de Navarra

MOROCCAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES: A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS

Douglas S. Massey

Monica Espinoza Higgins

Office of Population Research

Princeton University

SUMMARY: 1. INTRODUCTION. 2. SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES AS DESTINATION COUNTRIES. 3. SOURCES OF DATA. 4. MOROCCANS IN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES. 5. DETERMINANTS OF ECONOMIC INTEGRATION. 6. CONCLUSION. 7. REFERENCES.

1. INTRODUCTION

Morocco is an example of what Skeldon (1997) calls a “labor frontier nation”, a middle income country whose economy and infrastructure have developed sufficiently to loosen the bonds tying people to local communities but not enough to provide full employment, thus producing emigration to neighboring countries. Morocco has a long history of migration to Europe, dating back to 1912 when the French-Spanish Protectorate was established in the region and led to the initiation of labor recruitment. Although early movements were mainly to Algeria and through Algeria to the heartland of France (as Algeria was a Département of France until 1963), Moroccan emigration diversified thereafter to include other European nations, especially during the period of guest worker recruitment in the 1960s (de Haas, 2005a; Reniers, 1991). Following the recognition of Moroccan independence in 1956, the government signed temporary worker agreements with West Germany and France in 1963, Belgium in 1964, and the Netherlands in 1969 (de Haas, 2007).

After guest worker recruitment ended in 1973, emigration from Morocco mainly involved women and children moving for purposes of family reunification. During the 1980s, however, unskilled laborers began migrating to Italy and Spain, while more skilled migrants moved in smaller numbers to the Gulf Region as well as to Canada, the United States, and Britain (de Haas, 2007). Although more Moroccan migrants currently live in France than in Spain, migration to the latter nation has grown more rapidly in recent years. Whereas the Moroccan population of France grew by 57% between 1990 and 2005, that of Spain increased by 673% (de Haas, 2005b). As of 2005, some 424,000 migrants had registered with Moroccan consulates in Spain and 397,000 had registered with Spanish authorities (de Haas, 2007). By 2007 the latter figure had grown to more than 575,000 persons (United Nations, 2009).

At present, Moroccans constitute around 12% of all foreigners living in Spain and rising rates of immigration have attracted the attention of scholars and produced a growing research literature (see Bodega et al. 1995; de Haas and Fokkema, 2009; Roque, 1994; Salih, 2001; Soriano Miras, 2006; White, 2001). To date, few studies have examined Moroccan immigrants in Spain using nationally representative data sources, however; and to our knowledge no study has yet undertaken a comparative analysis of Moroccan migrants to Spain versus other destination countries. The comparative work that has been done so far is generally based on small, localized samples (Kopinak and Soriano Miras, 2009) and concerns issues of identity and transnationalism, particularly as expressed among women (Relaño Pastor and Soriano Miras, 2006; Soriano Miras, 2008).

Researchers have yet to examine patterns and processes of labor market integration using nationally representative data. Here we draw upon two recent surveys to undertake such an analysis, focusing on Moroccan migrants to Spain and the United States. We begin by outlining similarities and differences between Spain and the United States as immigrant destinations; and after describing the strengths and weaknesses of our two data sources and their points of comparability and difference, we move on to estimate multivariate models of employment, occupational attainment, and earnings among Moroccan immigrants to both countries.

2. SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES AS DESTINATION COUNTRIES

In one way, Spain and the United States are alike as destinations for Moroccan migrants. Both are overwhelmingly Christian nations that recently suffered highly visible and destructive attacks from Islamic terrorists. Thus both nations offer Moslem immigrants a problematic social environment in which to adapt, integrate and assimilate, yielding what Portes and Rumbaut (2000) might label a hostile context of reception. The degree of hostility is likely to be greater in Spain for a variety of reasons, however.

Spain, of course, was under Islamic occupation for centuries and is still considered part of the Muslim Ummah by irredentists in the Arab world, even though more than five centuries have passed since the Spanish re-conquest of the Iberia. In addition, Spain has a 20th century colonial history in North Africa that at least some older Moroccans remember as oppressive and younger Moroccans likely perceive as invidious. In addition to history, geography also sets Spain and the United States apart as potential destinations. Morocco is obviously much closer to Spain than to the United States and, given that distance increases the costs of migration and deters mobility, the demographic potential for Moroccan immigration is clearly much greater for Spain than the United States. Moroccans constitute a much larger share of immigrants than in the United States, where Muslims are a small share of all immigrants and Moroccans are a small share of those of Muslim origin. As a result, Moroccans are largely invisible to most Americans. In contrast, the large size of Spain’s Moroccan population and its great potential for future growth yield more potential for hostility than in the United States.

The greater distance and higher costs of migration to the United States mean that movement there will be far more selective than movement to Spain, thus producing migrants with greater endowments of financial, human, and cultural capital. We thus expect migrants to the United States to be of a higher social class than those going to Spain, with higher levels of education, skill, and occupational status. Given these resources, we expect them to achieve more successful integration, to be closer socially and culturally to American natives, and to pose less of a threat than in Spain. Other things equal, therefore, we hypothesize less labor force integration and lower levels of economic success among Moroccans in Spain than in the United States.

3. SOURCES OF DATA

Our data come from two nationally representative surveys of immigrants conducted in 2003 (in the United States) and 2007 (in Spain). Although both surveys are representative probability samples, the target populations are quite different. The Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes (ENI) was conducted by Spain’s National Statistical Institute and was designed to represent all foreign born persons aged 16 or more who lived in a family household during the period from November 2006 to February 2007. Respondents had to have lived in Spain for at least one year and intended to remain there for at least one year more. The sampling frame was the municipal household registry, a nation-wide registration system that includes all non-institutional dwellings in the country and registers all persons living within those dwellings for purposes of providing basic services. Since registration is required and tied to services and the registry is not used for immigration enforcement, the ENI sample is generally thought to offer relatively complete coverage of the immigrant population, both documented and undocumented. In the end, the survey carried out in-person interviews with some 15,465 respondents who had the choice of answering the survey in Arabic or Spanish.

In contrast, New Immigrant Survey (NIS) was conducted in the United States by a team of researchers based at three private universities (Princeton, Yale, and New York University) and the nonprofit RAND Corporation. It was funded by a consortium of U.S. federal agencies, including the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, the National Institute on Aging, the National Science Foundation, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the Bureau of Citizen and Immigrant Services, and the Department of Health and Human Services, along with Pew Charitable Trusts.

The NIS is a stratified probability sample of the entering cohort of immigrants who received permanent residence documents during the period from May to November of 2003. Subjects were randomly selected from monthly lists of immigrants who had just received residence visas by the Bureau of Citizen and Immigrant Services. Either a face-to-face or a telephone interview was conducted within six months of visa issuance, yielding a sample of 8,573 households surveyed with a response rate of 68%, 90 of whom were born in Morocco. Respondents were interviewed in whichever language they preferred, Arabic or English. Thus, whereas the ENI offers a large sample of immigrants residing in Spain at the time of the survey, the NIS offers a much smaller sample of a single cohort of immigrants who became legal residents during the study period. Although the two samples are quite different from one another, both offer accurate representations of their target populations based on robust sampling designs.

4. MOROCCANS IN SPAIN AND THE UNITED STATES

Table 1 displays means for Moroccans in Spain and the United States who were in the labor market at the time of the survey (either employed or unemployed and searching for work), yielding samples of 995 and 90, respectively. Differences between the two nations are tested systematically, including differences between immigrants in the two nations as a whole and for male and female immigrants. Overall, Moroccan immigrants display the same rate of success in achieving employment in Spain and the United States, with around 77%-78% being employed at the time of the survey. This overall similarity obscures a significant difference between the two countries when immigrants are broken down by gender. Whereas in the United States women were slightly more likely to be working than men (83% versus 76%), in Spain it was the reverse: women were considerably less likely to be working than men (65% versus 83%).

Table 1. Average characteristics of Moroccan immigrants to Spain and to the United States

*Two countries statistically different at p<0.05.

Sources: New Immigrant Survey (NIS) 2004; Encuesta Nacional de Inmigrantes (ENI) 2007.

The table also shows the proportion of employed workers holding a skilled occupation. In the NIS, skilled workers include executive, administrative and managerial jobs, scientists, engineers, counselors, religious workers, teachers, legal personnel, entertainers, media workers, and health care workers. In the ENI, they include public administration, technicians, scientists, support professionals, skilled workers in agriculture and fishing. We recognize that this classification grouping is not ideal given the occupational categories in each data set. When we tested different schemes for defining skilled occupations, however, we found very similar findings.

Although we initially hypothesized that Moroccan immigrants to the United States would be more skilled than Moroccans in Spain, we found that the latter were far more likely to be working in a skilled occupation than those in the United States (23% in Spain versus just 6% in the United States), a pattern that held true for both males and females. With respect to wages, however, Moroccan immigrants in the United States out-earned their counterparts in Spain, suggesting that our occupational classification may not accurately capture individual skill. We measured wages by converting nominal euros and dollars into constant dollars adjusted for purchasing power parity. Whereas in Spain the average Moroccan immigrant earned $5.77 per hour in PPP dollars, among those in the United States the figure was 30% higher at $7.48 per hour. Although female immigrants earned less than male immigrant in both countries, the roughly the same inter-country differential of 30% prevailed for both genders. Women comprised 29% of Moroccan immigrants interviewed in Spain and 26% of those interviewed in the United States, a difference that was not statistically significant.

Apart from this similarity in sex ratios, the two sets of immigrants are quite different from each other. Overall, Moroccan immigrants in the United States are significantly younger than those in Spain (with an average age of 29.6 years versus 36.5 in Spain). They are also much less likely to be married (32% in the United States versus 64% in Spain) and much, much less likely to have children (9% versus 95%). Overall 52% of Moroccans said their spouse was present with them in Spain compared with just 20% in the United States. Although 52% of Moroccan women were married at the time of the survey in both countries, only 43% of those in the United States reported a spouse being present compared with 50% of women in Spain. Thus married Moroccan women in Spain were almost always accompanied by their husbands. Not only were male Moroccans in Spain were more likely to be married than in the United States (69% versus 25%), they were also less likely to be accompanied by wives, with 53% of male Moroccans reporting their spouse was present in Spain compared with just 11% in the United States. Thus Moroccans migrating to Spain are most likely embedded within families whereas those migrating to the United States are more likely to be single, childless, and migrating alone.

Turning to human capital, our hypothesis about the greater selectivity of migration to the United States appears to be confirmed. Whereas 78% of Moroccan immigrants in the United States have completed secondary school, the figure was only 31% among those in Spain. Although the inter-country differential was roughly the same among male immigrants, it was even more skewed among Moroccan women, 83% of whom had completed secondary school in the United States compared with just 29% in Spain. Female immigrants in the United States thus tend to be young, well educated, employed women without children, whereas those in Spain are poorly educated, unemployed mothers with children.

Given the contrasting nature of the populations sampled by the ENI and the NIS, it is not surprising that Moroccans in Spain report much more host country experience, some 13.2 years, compared with Moroccans in the United States, where the average responded reported just 1.2 years. A similar inter-country differential prevails among both males and females, as one would expect given that the ENI samples a resident population while the NIS samples an entering cohort of new legal immigrants. Whereas the amount of time spent in Spain ranges from 1 to 62 years, the range is only from 0 to 8 years in the United States. Ability in the host country language was measured using a four-point ordinal scale that ranged from 1 (not at all) to 4 (very good). On this admittedly crude indicator of linguistic ability there were no differences between Moroccan immigrants in Spain and the United States. Moroccans in Spain spoke Spanish about as well as those in the United States spoke English. Immigrants in Spain were much less likely to be accompanied by a spouse than those in the United States.

The foregoing results suggest that Moroccans who migrate to the United States are young, educated people without families whereas those going to Spain are older, less educated with spouses and children, though this contrast no doubt substantially reflects the different designs of the two samples. In addition, although male immigrants pursue employment in both countries, female Moroccan immigrants to the United States are much more likely to be childless and to work than those going to Spain, even when they are married. Although Moroccans in the United States have higher educations and earn higher wages, those in Spain have more host-country experience and are more likely to hold skilled jobs. In the following section we explore whether differences in economic outcomes can be explained by differences in the background characteristics of migrants in each country.