The labour market and racial discrimination in Spain

This article analyses the issues raised by immigration into Spain from the specific perspective of entry into the labour market. The first part looks at the mechanisms of discrimination against immigrant workers, and then proceeds to analyse the factors that perpetuate racial discrimination in the labour market, based on the interests and practices of the various social agents (government, employers, trades unions, local workers) in relation to immigrants. We show how the non-EU immigrant labour force suffers from negative discrimination compared to native workers, in terms of both access to jobs and to working conditions, independently of their educational levels, qualifications or prior work experience. This not only gives rise to a loss of human resources available to the host society, but also represents a definite barrier for the integration into the host society of these immigrant groups. As long as immigrants are unable to overcome this vulnerability in the labour market, their socio-economic integration will be impossible.