ABSTRACT
This chapter examines more detail legal differences toward non-EU nationals between Portugal and Spain, and explores if these have any implication for African employment. Control of borders, immigration, asylum seeker and naturalisation policies are matters for the state. The importance of self-employment in the 1985–86 legalisations was the result of this employment status being one of the acceptable entry points for unemployed Africans to obtain legalisation. The chapter highlights how the image of illegal workers being in a precarious position, as they are more open to 'abuses' by employers, presents only part of the picture. The Girona Ministry of Labour and Social Security could not guarantee a positive response to the employer's pre-contract, so Mr. Bushari's visa application could be denied. The reason for the high number of Portuguese African-born immigrants in the survey lies in the recent history of the country and its process of decolonisation in the mid–1970s.
