Friday, December 26, 2008

The Children are the Future

The good news is the Gypsies are no longer the most hated immigrant group in Spain among students aged 13 - 19 years old, according to a new survey by a Complutense University group written about in El Pais, now the Moroccans are the most hated.

The bad news is an average of about 20 percent of these enlightened young people think that pretty much all immigrants should be kicked out of Spain entirely - including the Asians and the Jews, although I think there are only about four Jews left in Spain, but still, they gotta go...

If we're only talking about the Moroccans, 40% of native Spanish students in 2008 think they must be kicked out of Spain. Wow! This is actually an improvement, in 2002 the figure was 48% of students who thought they should be sent packing.

How about the Latinos? They are brothers right? Same language, same religion, should they be allowed to stay? Nope. 25% of students said get rid of them. Nice! And this percentage is increasing.

They even write in the article that the results of the survey were so bad in 2002 and then again in 2004, that they did not dare to make them public. Well, that's one way of believing all is well, just don't talk about it.

I wonder what a year or two of the current bad economy will do to these figures? I'm thinking it could get ugly.

7 comments:

Midnight Golfer said...

If all the other percentages are falling, the percentage of the Latinos' percentage will proportionally fall.
However, it makes you wonder.
Since I couldn't make it through all the Spanish in the article to figure out how they selected the children surveyed, I'm left wondering if they randomly selected from all school-age children, or if they only questioned the 'Spaniard' ones.

If it was completely random, then it kind of makes sense that the kids who identify with 'moorish' or 'islamic' wouldn't select the "Moroccan" category for expulsion. Since this group seems to be coming over in much more "family-units" and are having more kids in general, they are growing the fastest, and their kids are changing the demographic of the test itself. ??

More kids this year named "Mohammed" than named "Joseph" (at least in Valencia.)

http://www.thinkspain.com/news-spain/15989/more-babies-named-mohammed-than-josep-in-valencia

This past week I visited Madrid, and found that an observation that I had been making here in Málaga was also holding true up there:

It is rare to see a woman with a head scarf who doesn't at least have a baby-carriage with her, if not several other children accompanying her.
(This is just my own observation, and in no way statistical.)
Eastern Europeans always look like they're ready to go back home, and seem to stay single, and aloof.
Latinos always seem to be trying to fit in, and therefore, like Spaniards, don't have kids.
Asians seem to stick to themselves so much that I haven't noticed any kids, at least not outside of the corner markets tended by their parents. (Maybe they're home studying when I'm out and about, as they were when I was a kid in California, resenting their good grades.)
There hardly seems to be any black woman here, compared to the number of young, male, black laborers.
But, it is the muslim-looking families that appear to be thriving.

Anonymous said...

When I recently mentioned a similar survey conducted by Spain's Ministry of Education I was publicly drawn and quartered over at the Notes from Spain forum. There are a lot of people walking around with blinders on when it comes to this topic and unfortunately that is no way to dealing with this potential crisis.

The next 12 to 24 months are going to be wrenching, politically and economically in Spain, and there are no signs that anyone is really prepared to deal with it.

Carl said...

You're right Midnight, you don't often see African woman around town?

And the percentage of natives who think the Latinos should go is rising - according to the article.

And lastly, I'm assuming they only asked "native" Spanish kids these questions...

Carl said...

Yes Bilingual, it is fascinating how uncomfortable facts about Spain just will not be believed. But any crazy "fact" about the U.S. is written in stone true.

Midnight Golfer said...

I totally messed up in my previous comment. First, I said the opposite of what I meant. I meant that if all the other categories were falling that the remaining category (Latinos) must rise as a percentage of the total, even though I said fall. But now I realize that this too is flawed.
I had assumed that they didn't have the option to choose: "don't kick anybody out"
I also assumed that kids from all backgrounds were represented.

As for my personal (non-statistical) observations:
No, I see young males from Africa many-fold more times than females from Africa. The last time I remember was in summer, and they were braiding the tourists hair. Maybe it's just where I go walking, and the time of day, and the fact that I pay more attention around construction sites, (as I kind-of want to get my construction job back, so I don't have to work graveyard shift anymore.)

Interesting survey, though.

Carl said...

No Prob Midnight. To be honest, the survey does not sound very sophisticated. The only question they ask the kids is, "Should we kick out the foreigners?" But then again, which survey is sophisticated?

Good luck on that job. I also am in the construction business (basically) and I'm expecting the shite to hit the fan real soon.

leftbanker said...

Xenophobia and racism exist in Spain? Shocking, positively shocking. Although to be fair, immigration is a new phenomena in Spain so I'm sure that they will eradicate these twin evils like we have in America.

I don't doubt that racism exists in Spain but the survey results seem dubious at best. It would be the same as someone asking a white American student a leading question like, "Who do you hate more: blacks or Mexicans?" It seems taken right from the "Have you stopped beating your wife?" school of questioning.