Demographic challenges

Immigration has become an increasingly important demographic factor over recent years. Putting aside issues related to illegal immigration, the assault of Africans on the wired wall around Melilla, a Spanish city in northern Africa or the tragic drownings that occur as people try to cross the strait by boat, the number of foreigners living in Spain has increased dramatically.

Recent statistics indicate a reversal in the decline of the birth rate, which has recovered to levels not seen in 25 years in the case of Catalonia, one of the regions that is attracting immigrants. For one in five of the 76,000+ babies born, at least one of the parents was a foreigner.
Obviously a demographic shift of this nature represents a considerable challenge for both the Catalan government, in this specific case, and the Spanish government as a whole.
One of the first things that will need to be addressed is ensuring that the State is ready to provide the additional educational, health and welfare resources for a growing population. In some regions, such as Girona, the number of babies with foreign parents is as high as one in three - and the diversity found in urban areas of Barcelona represents a completely new scenario to the Catalan-Spanish dichotomy that has dominated politics and policy making in recent years.

As parent of an infant I'm also concious that those of us with young children can expect to face problems when enrolling children for school. After years of steady decline in the birth rate there are bound to be problems. Overdemand in some areas, inadequacy of facilities and unmotivated teaching staff, just to start. I have no confidence in the state's ability to anticipate these changes which demographic shifts clearly indicate. In the lottery for finding places in schools, those with contacts will be okay, but many people will be faced with bringing their children to schools in other neighbourhoods on a daily basis...
The challenge of integrating a cross section of nationalities in some schools is already a reality. Spain must learn from the experiences of countries like France and England, or cities like Toronto, seeking effective models to follow and adapting them to the circumstances of each region and neighbourhood.

Schooling and pre-schooling only represent the tip of the iceberg when considering the public policy challenges that will need to be faced. But as the demographic structure of the society begins to change, as reflected in the birth statistics, one can begin to appreciate the scale of transformation.