Asian Immigrants in Spain

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development of migration policies and the economic structure of Spain on ... that came alone, such as Jose Rizal, who was in Madrid from 1882 to 1885. Their.
Asian Immigrants in Spain: An Overview Joaquín Beltrán Antolín Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona Asian communities in Spain are not very well known in spite of their long settlement and growing population in the country. Spain’s transition as a destination for economic migrants has attracted various Asian groups. However, within the growing number of migration studies in Spain, Asians are rarely the focus of inquiry. This article presents an overview of the origin, evolution and current characteristics of the main Asian communities in Spain. The diverse origins of Asian immigrants on the one hand, and the development of migration policies and the economic structure of Spain on the other, are part of the general context within which to understand the settlement of Asian immigrants.

A Short History of Asians in Spain Since the sixteenth century a handful of Asians, most of them Filipinos, Chinese and Japanese, arrived in Spain at different periods. They were servants, merchants, diplomats, novices, students and seafarers. The first Asians to settle in Spain were the Filipinos during the second half of the nineteenth century. The Filipino community at the time was composed of politicians, military personnel, professionals, artists, students, merchants and other Filipinos who were in their employ. They were politically very active and founded several associations and also published newspapers, reviews and pamphlets, with the aim of promoting reforms in the Philippines. It was a community composed of households, with men, women and children, and included different social classes. The exceptions were the students that came alone, such as Jose Rizal, who was in Madrid from 1882 to 1885. Their settlement was concentrated in the capital, Madrid, and in Barcelona, the most important seaport and the main Spanish hub of maritime transport and commerce. After the Philippines gained independence in 1898, the Filipino community in Spain changed in composition. Most of the political activists returned home and some personnel and collaborators under the colonial administration returned to Spain (Martín, 1998). The first Spanish contact with Asians focused on the Philippines, which was a Spanish colony until 1898. This historical link explains why there was a Filipino Asian and Pacific Migration Journal, Vol. 11, No. 4, 2002

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community in Spain. The Filipinos actively participated in the political arena of the metropolis, particularly during the last part of the 19th century; this period also marked the expansion of their economic, commercial and cultural activities in Spain. Spain also had contacts with the Chinese on account of the recruitment of Chinese workers for the colonies in the Americas. The end of the slave trade led to massive labor shortage, and the recruitment of Chinese workers was one response to this problem. In Cuba, some Chinese people were detained and accused of different crimes, for which they were sent to Spanish prisons in the North African Spanish cities of Ceuta and Melilla. Once they were free, they settled in these Spanish cities or moved to other locales. However, their numbers were not too many to form a community (Martín, 1998). Outside of the colonial context, the first significant migrant flow from Asia to Spain involved the Chinese. Peddlers from South Zhejiang province came to Spain, as well as to other European countries, in a movement that reached a peak in the 1930s (Beltrán, 1996). There were also several Chinese circuses with a European base in Spain (Wang, 1991; Su, 1999). With the passage of time, the Chinese acrobats changed professions and went into business (Beltran, 1998). The Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) put an end to this flow, and the new Franco regime and the autarkic economic development model that accompanied it closed the country to foreigners. The regime also pushed the Spaniards to migrate to other countries. In the year 1940 there were only 40,000 foreign residents in Spain and around one million Spaniards left the country (Colectivo Ioé, 1999b). Spain was a relatively poor and undeveloped country in comparison with the richer countries of Northwestern Europe. The Spanish migratory flows from the end of the nineteenth century until the end of the 1970s included two kinds of population movements, international migration (especially to America and North Africa and to North Europe since the end of the 1950s) and internal migration (rural to urban movements). After 1973, the Spanish migrant flows, both international and domestic, slowed down. Since 1986, when Spain entered the European Economic Community, living standards began to improve very quickly, and Spain became a country of immigration. What kind of opportunities could offer Spain to foreigners before 1980s, i.e., at a time when Spaniards were migrating en masse to other countries looking for work to earn a living? The different Asian communities that settled in Spain during this period developed and inserted themselves in special economic niches where they could prosper. The Indians settled in the Canary Islands during the fifties (Murcia, 1974); they were mainly merchants who left India when the country gained independence in 1947. The Canary Islands occupied a strategic place in the network of international maritime ports used by the Indian diaspora engaged in commercial activities. The Koreans also established themselves in the same place, which became the base for their Atlantic fishing business. After the military seized power and the Park dictatorship took hold of the country, some Koreans emigrated, and some settled in Spain, where they prospered as seafarers or in the fishing industry (Colectivo Ioé, 1997; Beltrán and Sáiz, 2002). The Chinese also began to open Chinese restaurants in the Spanish tourist places from the sixties onwards. During the seventies, Filipino women came to Spain to work in the domestic service sector (Comamala, 1994; Ribas, 1994). Also, during the 1970s, some Pakistanis came to

ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN

487

TABLE 1 FOREIGN RESIDENTS IN SPAIN, 1955-2001 Year 1955 1965 1971 1976 1981 1986 1991 1996 2001

Total 66,043 99,582 147,727 157,973 197,942 293,208 360,655 538,984 1,109,060

EU

% Total

48,273 62,341 84,909 90,048 120,539 170,398 158,243 252,034 331,098

73 62 57 57 60 58 44 47 30

Asia

% Total

1,637 2,896 8,375 9,206 13,554 24,007 31,976 43,466 91,552

2.48 2.91 5.67 5.82 6.84 8.18 8.86 8.06 8.25

SOURCES: Anuario de Migraciones and Ministry of the Interior

work in the mining sector (Colectivo Ioé, 1987). A handful of Japanese arrived in the sixties, in connection with the establishment of commercial activities; their presence has increased since then (Díaz and Kawamura, 1994; Ramos and Ruiz, 1996). By the end of the seventies Spain accepted around a thousand Vietnamese and Laotian refugees; some of them settled and with the passage of time had become Spanish citizens; most moved on to France and the USA to join their kin and friends (Colectivo Ioé, 1987). There were very few Asians before 1986 and they were concentrated in economic sectors where they could develop their commercial and entrepreneurial skills in international commerce, catering, fishery-related industries, investing in economic production and so on. On the other hand, there were also other Asians filling specific sectors, like the Filipinos, many of whom were in the live-in domestic service for the upper social classes, or the Pakistanis in mining extraction. Later, especially during the second half of the nineties, the economic activities of Asian immigrants diversified and new ethnic economic niches appeared with the development of services to cater to the needs of migrants. The year 1985, just before Spain’s admission to the European Union, Spain elaborated her first Alien’s Law (Ley de Extranjeria) that was accompanied by the first regularization process of foreign residents and workers who were in Spanish territory without registration. This law has been reviewed several times, and each time, it was accompanied by a new regularization process (1991, 1996, 2000, 2001). In 1993 it began an annual quota system, which it has been using to regularize the foreigners already living and working in Spain without official permits. There was an increase in the number of foreign residents during the nineties, and especially in the second half of the decade (Table 1). At the end of 2001 there were 1.1 million foreign residents (or about three percent of the total population). European residents have been the most important group of foreigners until 1991, when their share fell to less than a half (44 percent) of the total foreign population. In the last decade, North Africans and Latin Americans have increased their share significantly. While the North Africans and Latin Americans are mostly economic migrants, the Europeans are mostly older and retired people who came

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to Spain because of the warmer weather and relatively low living standards in comparison with their countries of origin (Colectivo Ioé, 1999b; Izquierdo, 1996; Pajares, 1998; Martínez, 1997). In 1955, Asians (including those from the Near East and Middle East) comprised 2.5 percent of the total foreign residents in Spain. In 1992, the share of Asians among the total number of foreign residents increased to 8.9 percent. In 2001, their share was about 8.25 percent of the total immigrants in Spain (similar to their share in 1986). Thus, in the last 30 years, the Asian population in Spain did not increase very much.

Asian Migration and Settlement in Spain The last decade of the twentieth century has highlighted the importance of political issues in the phenomenon of migration to Spain. At present migration is a very sensitive topic in all of Europe. The Asian population in Spain is relatively small, which is probably one of the reasons why this group is relatively understudied. Each Asian community has its own history and characteristics, thus it is necessary to conduct a study of the different groups. Only the Chinese and the Filipino communities have been researched both in the origin and destination (Beltrán, 1996; Ribas, 1994); the other Asian groups have been hardly studied at all. As Table 2 shows, the total population of Asians (excluding those from Near East and Middle East) at the end of 2001 was about 100,000. To the 83,800 Asians holding a residence permit, we have to add the more than 10,000 who were naturalized since 1980, and the more than 2,000 students, and finally, all the Asians without official permits who are living and working in Spain (their exact number is impossible to know). As of 2001, the three largest Asian communities, i.e., residents, are the Chinese (36,143), Filipinos (14,716) and Pakistanis (14,322). Next to them are the Indians (9,271), Japanese (3,259), Bangladeshis (2,084) and South Koreans (2,064). All the other Asian communities have a population of less than 500: six of them had a population between 100 and 500 (Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia and Singapore), and the rest have fewer than one hundred people. The rank order among the largest communities has been changing over time. In 1975 the Indians (1,576) were the first, the Filipinos (1,291) ranked second, the Japanese (623) occupied third place, and the Chinese (427) ranked fourth. In 1980, the Filipinos (2,878) toppled the Indians (2, 367). In 1982 the Chinese were in third place; in 1991, they were second; and in 1997, they were the largest Asian community. Now the Chinese account for 43 percent of all Asians in Spain, and they are the fourth largest non-EU migrant community in Spain, after the Moroccan, Ecuadorian and Colombian communities. The two other Asian communities that have experienced an impressive and fast growth in the nineties, and especially from 1999 to 2001, are the Pakistanis and the Bangladeshis. The more steady and relatively low rate of increase characterize the Indians and Filipinos. The Japanese and South Koreans hardly grew and during the last few years, their population declined in comparison with the previous years. The Taiwanese community is also decreasing and in 2001, they had a smaller population than ten years before. On the other hand, Asian students in Spain are predominantly Japanese with a share of more than 50 percent of the total, followed by South

-

285

630

1,684

346

2,998

6,882

2,471

11,770

10,816

1996

-

21.28

16.24

11.82

367.57

15.26

28.59

168.00

46.23

66.86

% Change 1991-1996 1997

44,037

713

293

519

1,639

548

3,070

6,790

3,354

11,357

15,754

SOURCE: Ministry of the Interior NOTE: * Excludes those from the Near East and Middle East.

Total Asians

-

235

Thailand

Other nations

542

1,506

South Korea

Taiwan

74

2,601

Japan

Bangladesh

5,352

India

922

8,049

Philippines

Pakistan

6,482

1991

China

Country of Origin

54,766

889

336

612

1,971

732

3,631

8,114

4,238

13,553

20,690

1998

60,300

895

343

506

2,129

850

3,478

8,515

5,126

13,765

24,693

1999

TABLE 2 TOP NINE ASIAN RESIDENT COMMUNITIES, 1991-2001*

64,546

-

350

411

1,961

1,179

3,136

7,813

7,843

13,160

28,693

2000

83,800

1,127

398

416

2,064

2,084

3,259

9,271

14,322

14,716

36,143

2001

90.30

58.06

35.84

-19.85

25.93

280.29

6.16

36.54

327.01

29.58

129.42

% Change 1997-2001

ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN 489

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ASIAN AND PACIFIC MIGRATION JOURNAL TABLE 3 MAJOR SOURCE COUNTRIES OF ASIAN STUDENTS IN SPAIN, 1992-1999 Country

Japan South Korea China Taiwan Philippines India Thailand Total

1992

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

332 155 104 130 68 33 11 833

487 126 107 114 50 68 952

471 85 50 116 54 53 11 840

901 186 78 174 76 109 21 1,545

960 194 167 200 146 94 23 1,784

1,101 238 209 169 139 122 39 2,017

SOURCE: Anuario de Migraciones

Koreans, Chinese and Taiwanese. The more developed Asian countries are those that have more students in Spain (Table 3). The growth patterns of Asian migration evince some variations and distinct patterns. The more developed countries of origin have lower rates of increase compared with the others; also, migration from these countries has almost stopped, particularly after the economic crisis in the 1990s (especially the years 1997-1998). China, on the other hand, has a relatively high growth rate, surpassed only by communities coming from less developed countries like Pakistan and Bangladesh. The Indians and Filipinos, the older and larger settled communities, have a steady and relatively low rate of increase. Asian communities vary in their gender and age profiles. In 1999, the Taiwanese, South Korean, Japanese, Indian and Chinese communities had a relatively balanced gender composition, with some slight variations. With the exception of Japan, which has slightly more women than men (1,786 vs. 1,645); the rest have slightly more men than women, particularly China which has 11,223 women and 13,001 men. These communities are mostly composed of households with husband, wife and children (Table 4). The population from Pakistan and Bangladesh is predominantly male (nearly 80 percent). Both groups grew the fastest during the nineties, and in this case most of the new migrants are males and very few had their families with them In contrast, the Filipino and Thai communities are predominantly female (62 percent and 78 percent, respectively). Women predominate among the Filipinos as they are mostly employed in the domestic service sector. In general, the age structure of the Asian residents is generally young (Table 5). The share of the elderly population, i.e., those aged 65 years and older, is as follows: Indians (5.6 percent), Taiwanese (4.7 percent), Japanese (3.4 percent), Chinese (2.5 percent) Filipinos (2.1 percent) and South Koreans (1.7 percent). Compared with the other groups, the share of the population aged below 15 years old is smaller for the Thai (3.5 percent), Filipino (11.1 percent) and Japanese (13.9 percent) communities. The Filipino community has a large share of single women and of women with their children in the Philippines being cared for by other family members. The Japanese tend to live apart from their children because the

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491

TABLE 4 ASIAN RESIDENTS BY GENDER, 1999 Country China Philippines India Pakistan Japan South Korea Bangladesh Taiwan Thailand

Women 11,223 8,571 4,025 995 1,786 1,011 174 252 269

%

Men

45.45 62.27 47.27 19.41 51.35 47.48 20.47 49.80 78.42

13,001 5,014 4,272 4,053 1,645 1,058 667 248 64

% 52.65 36.42 50.17 79.07 47.30 49.69 78.47 49.01 18.66

N/A

%

469 180 218 78 47 60 9 6 10

1.90 1.31 2.56 1.52 1.35 2.82 1.06 1.18 2.91

Total 24,693 13,765 8,515 5,126 3,478 2,129 850 506 343

SOURCE: Ministry of the Interior

TABLE 5 ASIAN RESIDENTS IN SPAIN BY AGE, 1999 (IN PERCENTAGE) Country China Philippines India Pakistan Japan South Korea Bangladesh Taiwan Thailand

0-15 16.47 11.06 17.68 17.91 13.86 18.98 16.12 15.41 3.49

16-64 81.05 86.87 76.67 81.33 82.78 79.29 83.88 79.85 95.64

< 65 2.47 2.07 5.65 0.76 3.36 1.73 0.00 4.74 0.87

Source: Ministry of the Interior

latter attend school in Japan. The other communities have around the same share of the population under 15 years as the Spanish population (17 percent) – the share of the under 15 years age group among the South Koreans (19 percent) and Pakistanis (18 per-cent) come closest to that of the Spanish population. In summary, the Asian residents are fairly young; also, most groups have a balanced gender composition. As data in Table 6 suggest, the share of female dependents is considerable among the Japanese, South Koreans, Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis. In contrast, the female labor force participation rate among the Filipinos and Chinese is high (Beltrán, 2000a). The geographical distribution of Asian communities also exhibits several peculiarities. The most important provinces are Madrid, Barcelona and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria; in general they are especially concentrated in the Mediterranean arch and the islands. In 2000, the Canary Islands were home to close to half of the Indians (44 percent) and the South Koreans (48.6 percent) in Spain. More than 70 percent of the Bangladeshi, Filipino and Japanese communities can be found in Madrid and Barcelona. Both provinces are also home to 59 percent of the Taiwanese,

492

ASIAN AND PACIFIC MIGRATION JOURNAL TABLE 6 ASIAN WORKERS BY GENDER, 1990, 1995 AND 1999

China Philippines India Japan South Korea Pakistan Taiwan Bangladesh

1990 Men Women Total

1995 Men Women Total

1999 Men Women Total

1,324 1,226 1,661 862 461 377 32 -

4,454 2,417 2,037 856 502 1,113 45 -

7,849 2,586 2,121 678 444 2,059 333

327 2,856 196 227 82 8 17 -

1,651 4,082 1,857 1,089 543 385 49 -

1,749 4,724 290 235 91 23 24 -

6,203 7,141 2,327 1,091 593 1,136 69 -

4,545 4,894 348 223 96 106 37

12,394 7,480 2,469 901 540 2,165 370

SOURCE: Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

49.2 percent of the Chinese, and 39 percent of the Thai populations in Spain These latter communities are relatively dispersed across the Spanish territory. The Chinese are more spread out because of their insertion in the catering trade or restaurant business: they have opened Chinese restaurants in many Spanish cities and towns with more than 10,000 population. This business has reached saturation point and they have to diversify to other economic sectors (Beltrán, 2000b). The Pakistani community has a special pattern of geographical distribution. Almost 53 percent of Pakistanis are concentrated in Barcelona province, and the rest are settled in inland provinces like Jaen, La Rioja, Leon, Toledo, Teruel and Cordoba, where there are almost no other Asians. As mentioned earlier, the Pakistanis have the highest work participation in mining and agriculture.

Work and Occupational Patterns Asians could be divided in two major groups in accordance with the kind of work that they do. The first group is composed of those with an independent approach to labor, i.e., those engaged in family enterprises and independent work in specific ethnic niches. The second group consists of those in wage labor, either participating in the general and open labor market or inserted in specific labor sectors. In the first group are the Indians, who have established bazaars; the Chinese, who are in the restaurant business; the South Koreans, who are engaged in fishery enterprises and import/export companies; and the Taiwanese. In the second are the Japanese (mostly high skilled employees in Japanese multinational enterprises), Filipinos (mostly in the domestic service sector), Pakistanis (as workers in the agriculture, mining, construction sectors, domestic service, restaurants) and Bangladeshis (mainly in domestic service, restaurants and cleaning sector). This categorization is not very precise because there are also variations within each group. The work and occupational dimension of Asian communities in Spain has particular characteristics. If we analyze the evolution of their insertion in the labor market during the nineties, the Indian community is the most steady (Table 7). The number of Indian workers hardly changed between 1991 and 1999 - 2,370 and 2,469,

ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN

STOCK OF ASIAN WORKERS

493 TABLE 7 VALID WORK PERMIT, 1990-1999

WITH A

Year

China

Philippines

India

Pakistan

Japan

South Korea

1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

1,651 4,573 5,712 5,004 5,672 6,203 8,205 9,252 11,933 12,394

4,082 6,732 6,580 6,041 6,369 7,141 8,330 8,293 8,445 7,480

1,857 2,370 2,429 2,133 2,182 2,327 2,465 2,469 2,435 2,469

385 519 849 659 788 1,136 1,468 1,802 2,133 2,165

1,089 1,436 1,389 1,221 1,166 1,091 1,150 1,240 1,162 901

543 664 701 602 604 593 608 632 568 540

Bangladesh 373 461 370

Taiwan 49 81 95 78 85 69 80 -

SOURCE: Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

respectively. The number of Filipino workers increased between 1990 and 1995, but it has stabilized between 1995 and 1999. All the communities registered an increase between 1990 and 1991 on account of the second regularization process of foreign residents and workers in 1991(Izquierdo, 1996). The third regularization in 1996, also affected most of the Asian communities, during which time, the number of Indian, Japanese and South Korean workers increased. In general, the impact of the 1996 regularization was less significant than in 1991. The number of Japanese and South Koreans declined during the period 19911999. These two groups went through phases of expansion and contraction. The number of Japanese and South Koreans peaked in 1991 and 1992, respectively. Two international events - the Olympic Games in Barcelona and the Universal Exhibition in Sevilla that took place in 1992 attracted many migrants to Spain. Some came to Spain to follow the events, and the others came looking for new business opportunities. Since 1992, their numbers declined until 1994, and there was a slight increase and growth until 1997. The third phase began in 1998, when their numbers dropped anew because of the crisis in Asia in 1997-1998. During the crisis, many Japanese and Koreans - many of whom were managerial or highly skilled professionals – returned to their countries as their companies slowed down their expansion in Spain. Meanwhile, in the 1990s, the stock of Chinese and Pakistanis with worker permits registered an annual rate of increase at 72 percent and 51 percent, respectively. During the period 1990-1999, the number of naturalizations also increased: 1,189 Chinese and 486 Pakistanis became Spanish citizens. Presently,these two Asian communities have the largest migrant flows to Spain, and, together with Bangladeshis, their growth has accelerated since 1999. The Chinese have the longest history of settlement and they have developed a strategy of capturing a specific niche in the Spanish labor market. They recruit new workers using the chain migration strategy, which facilitates family reunification. They work almost exclusively inside their own economic niche. Pakistanis, who also have a long presence in Spain, are incorporated in the general labor mainly as wage labor rather than self-

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employment. The growth of the Pakistani and Bangladeshi since 1999 can be traced to their transfer to Spain from other European countries where they initially migrated (e.g., the United Kingdom). Spain offered more opportunities as there are only a few of them up until now, and also to take advantage of the most recent regularization exercises (2000 and 2001). The Chinese expansion to Spain from other European countries took place from the seventies and they had established chain migration links and family reunion strategies since then. Asians used to be very concentrated in the service sector compared to migrants coming from other continents. Table 8 shows that in 1999, the communities with the highest rate of participation in this sector were the Filipinos (98 percent), the Chinese (94 percent) and Indians (92 percent). As early as 1990, 98 percent of all Filipino workers were in the service sector, as were the Chinese and Indians at the time. The latter two groups entered other economic sectors since then, increasing their presence in industry and agriculture, respectively. By the mid-nineties, the Chinese had saturated the restaurant business and they have started to start other commercial activities and also in industry, especially garments. The Japanese and the Pakistanis are less concentrated in the service sector, with 69 percent and 63 percent, respectively. The Japanese workers accounted for 28.7 percent in industry (compared with 29.7 percent in 1990), and Pakistanis, 12.2 percent, down from 37.4 percent in 1990. Pakistanis have also started to get into agriculture in the last few years. They are the only Asian community with a significant presence (14.3 percent) in agriculture in 1999 and also in the construction sector (8.1 percent). Besides their higher concentration in the service sector, the other general characteristic of Asians is a comparatively high rate of self-employment (Table 9). As of 1991, more than half of the South Koreans (53.9 percent) are self-employed. The Indians (35.2 percent) and Chinese (26.3 percent) also have a high rate of selfemployment. A lower self-employment rate is observed for Pakistanis (9.8 percent) and Filipinos (0.7 percent). As a group, Asian immigrants have a very entrepreneurial profile compared with most foreigners and the native population. If we compare the self-employment rate of Asian communities in 1990 and 1999, the 1990 rate was higher among the Chinese (62.7 percent), Indians (46.9 percent) and Pakistanis (26 percent) while it is lower for the Japanese (14.8 percent) and South Koreans (45.3 percent). There are several factors that explain these different trends. First, naturalization hides the real self-employment rate of Asians because most of the naturalized are people that have more experience and years of residence in Spain1 and also they used to be the more successful ones in family businesses and enterprises. Second, the rapid growth in the number of residents and workers hinder the growth of their business - if they did not have enough capital to start a business when they came to Spain, they will first have to work and accumulate capital. The rate of growth is different for residents and the self-employed. The Chinese and Pakistanis are communities with a higher growth in the number of residents and workers and they also had the largest drop in the rate in self-employment. 1 Naturalization requires either ten continuous years of demonstrated official residence, (except for Filipinos, who only need three years because they came from an old Spanish colony) or marriage to a Spanish national.

1995

1999

Agriculture Industry Construction Services N/A Total

Agriculture Industry Construction Services N/A Total

125 518 84 11,596 71 12,394

2 89 5 6,083 24 6,203

10 15 2 1,621 3 1,651

China

39 89 37 7,143 172 7,480

32 71 32 6,946 60 7,141

16 81 16 3,967 2 4,082

Philippines

SOURCE: Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

1990

Year

Agriculture Industry Construction Services N/A Total

Sector

85 73 39 2,238 34 2,469

17 30 17 2,243 20 2,327

5 20 6 1,826 1,857

India

6 259 8 614 14 901

12 293 9 767 10 1,091

15 324 14 734 2 1,089

Japan

8 93 3 420 16 540

12 82 2 490 7 593

22 74 447 543

South Korea

TABLE 8 ASIAN WORKERS BY SECTOR OF ACTIVITY

310 264 176 1,306 109 2,165

69 124 62 814 67 1,136

10 144 19 207 5 385

Pakistan

-

1 68 69

1 48 49

Taiwan

4 48 8 302 8 370

-

-

Bangladesh

ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN 495

297

285

22

South Korea

Pakistan

Taiwan

1990

-

27

100

246

161

871

61

1,035

Self-employed

-

49

385

543

1,089

1,857

4,082

1,651

Total

SOURCE: Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

-

928

Japan

Bangaldesh

986

4,021

616

India

Philippines

China

Employed

-

37

889

243

829

1,316

7,083

3,632

Employed

-

32

247

350

262

1,011

58

2,571

Self-employed

1995

-

69

1,136

593

1,091

2,327

7,141

6,203

Total

TABLE 9 ASIAN WORKERS BY TYPE OF PERMIT, 1990, 1995 AND 1999

302

-

1,952

249

695

1,600

7,428

9,132

Employed

1999

68

-

213

291

206

869

52

3,262

Self-employed

370

-

2,165

540

901

2,469

7,480

12,394

Total

496 ASIAN AND PACIFIC MIGRATION JOURNAL

ASIAN IMMIGRANTS IN SPAIN

497

On the other hand, self-employment among the Japanese grew from 14.8 percent in 1990 to 22.9 percent in 1999; it also increased for South Koreans from 45.3 percent to 53.9 percent between 1990 and 1999. The trend in both communities accompanied the slight decline in the number of workers. If we take into account the naturalization rate of both communities (27 percent among the Japanese and 23.8 percent among the South Koreans) their self-employment rate would be a little higher. As explained earlier, in the case of Japanese and South Koreans (and Taiwanese too), the economic crisis during the nineties almost stopped their migration flows to Spain and changed the workers’ composition and structure. Both groups had an eight percentage-point increase in their self-employment rate because employment in the transnational companies declined and starting their own business became an alternative. As noted earlier, the gender distribution of Asian workers is predominantly male. The exception to this general trend is the Filipino community with an overwhelming percentage of women residents (62.3 percent of the total) and workers (65.4 percent). The Filipino women came to Spain to work as live-in domestic workers for the upper social classes at the end of the 1960s. They form part of a general migration flow to Southern Europe (Italy, Greece and Spain). Spain is a preferred destination, together with Italy, because both are Catholic countries, and Spain was also the metropolis in colonial times. Filipinos (as well as Latin Americans) receive preferential treatment in Spain because of former colonial ties. Among the Asians, Filipinos have the highest share in domestic service, 75 percent (Table 10). Some Filipino men who arrived in recent years are also working in the domestic service, sometimes living together with their wives in the employers' home. Other Filipino men also work in restaurants as wage labor (waiters, cooks and so on). Asian communities with a higher proportion of male workers in 1999 included the Pakistanis (95.1 percent), Bangladeshis (90 percent), Indians (85.9 percent), South Koreans (82.2 percent), Japanese (75.2 percent), and Chinese (61.1 percent). High female dependency is the norm in Asian communities, except for Filipinos and Thais. During the period 1990-1999, female labor force participation increased for all the Asian communities, particularly among the Chinese, which grew from 19 percent in 1990 to 39 percent in 1999. Thus, each Asian community carved a specific economic niche in Spain. Those who went into entrepreneurship specialized in one type of business or another: the Indians developed import/export companies and retail trade shops (bazaars); the South Koreans went into fisheries and import/export business (some also worked in Korean transnational companies); the Chinese opened restaurants, grocery stores, gifts shops, import/export companies, textiles and ready-made garment production. Those who took up paid employment went into various fields. The Japanese are employed mainly in Japanese transnational companies, occupying the higher technical and professional posts of corporate management; the Filipinos are mostly in the domestic service sector; and Pakistanis are in manual and unskilled work in agriculture, construction, mining and metal industry sectors (Table 10). Finally, one of the most recent trends in the economic patterns of Asian communities, an outcome of their growing population and tendency to reside in selected areas, is the growth of ethnic businesses targeting the Asian market. Asians have been developing an ethnic service and commercial economic sector whose

127

56

106

81

12,394

Agriculture workers

Construction workers

Industry workers

N/A

Total

7,480

198

60

22

49

46

5,565

103

58

1,206

127

46

Philippines

SOURCE: Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

82

Peddlers

1,628

436

Skilled workers

Domestic employees

559

Commerce employees

6,176

340

Professionals, experts, technicians

Catering workers

2.803

Company management

China

2,469

42

48

18

85

48

265

50

792

103

161

857

India

901

33

4

2

1

6

11

33

22

66

384

339

Japan

540

21

4

-

2

10

8

61

32

30

162

210

South Korea

TABLE 10 ASIAN WORKERS IN SPAIN BY OCCUPATION, 1999

2,165

105

143

138

312

130

537

198

113

363

39

87

Pakistan

370

9

18

4

4

29

145

37

11

84

6

23

Bangladesh

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clientele cater to the needs of their co-nationals: travel agencies, telephone boxes, restaurants, bars, hairdressing, grocery shops, halal butchers, supermarkets, photoshops, medicine clinics, and others.

Asian Communities and the Spanish Public Asians are not only a small population compared to other foreigners but also majority of them only came to Spain in the 1990s. The older groups may have resided in Spain for two or three generations. Most of the new Asian migrants do not know the Spanish language, and this poses a barrier in communicating with the members of the host society. With the exception of Filipinos and Pakistanis, Asians used to live and work within ethnic boundaries, and they were in special economic niches where they controlled most of the production/commercial process. In any case it is necessary that at least one person is fluent in the language of the host society. Otherwise, this disadvantage insulates individuals in economic niches and in their ethnic communities. Only the children in the schools receive socialization in the values and language of the host society, that sometimes conflict with their own communities’ expectations. If one family member can speak Spanish, he/she can serve as the translator for the family, which is im-portant in starting a business. However, Asian parents also worry when their children attend Spanish schools because they learn different values, and they lose their own language. To counter this, the Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, South Koreans and Pakistanis founded schools that operate on Saturdays or Sundays to teach their children their own languages and cultural values. The Asians have founded various associations with different objectives. Most of them aim to promote their own interests (mostly economic), to propagate their culture and religion (schools and religious centers), to invest in their countries of origin, to develop commercial activities, and so forth. Some of them are mixed Spanish-Asian associations. The associations have also a special function to help conationals in times of crisis, and to give them support and help them integrate in the ethnic economic niche or in the larger society. They began to have their own mass media (newspapers, reviews, radio) and they have also access to films and Asian television programs via satellite. Most of the Asians tend to marry within their community. The rate of mixed marriages is very low, particularly among the Japanese. In their own community, they have special access to ethnic resources, especially through kinship and friendship networks. They can get information, credit, capital, jobs, workers, support, marriage partners, and so on, that the host society cannot provide The solidarity and the experience of the pioneers are important factors for the new migrants’ settlement and improvement. Most Asians, as do most immigrants, have economic motives to migrate.2 2 Spain has very few Asian refugees. For example, in 2001 there were only 48 Vietnamese residents and six Laotians. Interestingly, these two groups are the only cases where there are more naturalized citizens than residents. There were 243 Vietnamese and 76 Laotians who were naturalized during the 1980-1999 period.

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Asians maintain close contact with their home communities. They send money to their families in their countries of origin, they also save money in order to become entrepreneurs or to run their own family business (with the possible exception of Filipino migrants). A lot of them are part of diasporic communities, i.e., they are inserted in social networks settled in different countries, not only Spain and their origin countries. Indians, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have relatives in the United Kingdom; the Chinese have family members in France, Italy, the Netherlands and other countries. They move from one European country to another with relative facility, thanks to their networks that are scattered around the world. Some Asian communities have a strong economic position in Spain. The most dramatic case pertains to the Japanese. In 1999 they established 222 companies in Spain, which generated 145,000 jobs. South Korean companies (which are fewer in number) also provided work opportunities to Spanish workers. The Indians have an important place in the international commerce of the Canary Islands and in others parts of Spain, as do the Chinese in the catering trade and in the import/ export of special products such as textiles. This economic power and their tendency to live in ethnic enclaves sometimes resulted in the development of stereotypes and negative attitudes. For example, the Japanese and South Koreans only get in the news when they open a new factory or close an older one. They have been perceived of exploiting Spanish workers. Since the mid-nineties, when different economic managers were studying the Japanese model of management and mode of production, the Japanese pass unnoticed. Indians constitute an economic force in the Canary Islands, and sometimes local economic power holders attack them. The Chinese used to be a scapegoat and were regarded with images of exoticism, mystery and inscrutability; the mass media also tend to associate them with criminal activities. The Chinese have began to question this kind of images that go against their economic interest and dignity as human beings. At the beginning of the 21st century, Asian communities may not be a sizeable part of the Spanish population, but their presence is becoming more visible. Knowledge about most of them is just in the exploratory stages. Both the Spanish and Asian people need to know each other better if they do not want to develop social exclusion processes. Unquestionably, Spain is going to attract more Asian people in the near future, and as a second generation of Asians is now becoming part of the Asian communities in Spain, there will be more transnational processes at work in the years to come.

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