ABSTRACT
Some years ago, Spain’s immigration situation was usually presented in light of the fact that Spain was being transformed from an emigration country to an immigration country. Today, immigration is a consolidated demographic reality. In the Spanish case, however, immigration is not a specific type of diversity separate from other types of diversity (linguistic, religious, national), but rather an example of multiple diversities (see also Kymlicka, this volume). In this chapter I will demonstrate how immigration to Spain has provoked discussions about already existing diversities, such as religious and national diversity, that were placed aside during the democratic transition of the 1970s. There are two relevant normative questions that exist today within the
context of discussions about the ‘backlash against multiculturalism’. The first question is how to manage this new process of diversity alongside the different dynamics already existing in Spain: the processes of recognition of religious and national diversity. The second question takes up the link between existent policies, political discourses and conflicts related to the diversity on the one hand, and public opinion on the other. That is, emphasis is placed on the importance of not just the relation between diversity and political responses,1 but also the much more complex relation between diversity and societal responses. With respect to this point, there exist deficiencies in current debates concerning immigration that the case of Spain brings to light and invites us to consider. Understanding the Spanish context may help contribute to extending the meaning of what Vertovec calls ‘super-diversity’, pointing to the necessity of considering multi-dimensional conditions and processes affecting not only immigrants, as Vertovec highlights, but also debates surrounding other diversities, such as religious and national diversity, that are activated by the presence of immigrants (Vertovec 2007). In the first part of this chapter, I address the question of how immigration
is affecting the way Spain is managing religious and national minorities, as well as how different dynamics of diversity are becoming more complex in practice, and more ambiguous and problem-focused in public discourse and in the political arena. In the second part, I analyse the context of the Spanish immigration debate. I will thereby place particular emphasis on the interconnection between policies, political discourse, social conflicts, and public
opinion related to immigration, highlighting the link between ‘what the government does’ and ‘what the citizens believe’. It is this link that is at the basis of what I will call the ‘governance hypothesis’, which is formulated as follows: the negative attitude of citizens is not so much directed at immigration, rather at the government (and politics) and its (in)capacity to govern issues related to multiculturalism and to respond to citizens’ expectations. This governance hypothesis will allow us to understand the ambivalence found when we compare border and cultural accommodation issues in Spain.
