‌Europe needs immigrants, but does it want them?

It's 3pm on Wednesday in Madrid's iconic Plaza Mayor. ‌Hundreds of tourists are taking selfies under a spotless sky, while others take refuge from the heat under the ample quadrangle cafe umbrellas.

‌The digital bus stop's temperature gauge just outside reads 35 degrees celsius. Inside the square half a dozen immigrants from Africa stand over blankets with Jade Bellingham Real Madrid shirts and Cristiano Ronaldo Al Nassr shirts displayed on blankets‌

They call it 'Top Manta' (blanket) as street vendors - or 'Manteros' - hold light ropes tied to the four corners of their blankets, ready to rip up their goods and run if the police come.

‌The Manteros say they only do this work because they have to wait years to even apply to work legally in Spain, enduring a long and complicated legal process.

‌Not far away in the Lavapies barrio, CGTN meets with Abdou Touray, part of the 'Pantera' (Panther) Union where immigrants help immigrants, right next to Nelson Mandela Square.

‌"My story? I'm a Gambian, I too came to Europe on the boats like many others," explains Touray. I have been in Spain for over three years now. I myself was a Mantero, I was a street vendor, and I find it so difficult. We do it because we don't have an option.

"I've been in Switzerland, and in Germany, in Italy, but I find myself here in Spain with the community of Africans helping each other. Nobody wants to be in the street running against police under the sun, carrying heavy things. I moved on and now I have a good job. I'm working at the airport."

‌Abdou now helps other migrants get the papers they need to get off the streets and into legal employment.

The contradiction of European immigration

‌Europe needs immigrants.

‌That's easy to prove. In Spain, for example, over 30 percent of the country's agriculture workers come from outside the EU and at harvest time in Catalonia for example, that rises to 75 percent.

‌These numbers don't even include undocumented workers. Without migrants, Spain and much of Europe wouldn't eat.‌

Then there's the fact that Europe is aging and birth rates are plummeting, meaning that there is a population time bomb ticking.

‌Who will pay for pensions and healthcare if the vast majority of people are retired?

‌But that doesn't stop some political groups portraying immigrants as a threat and using anti-immigration rhetoric to win votes in Spain, in Italy, and across Europe.

Far-right anti-immigration rhetoric depicts an "invasion" of illegal immigrants and links that to criminality, using anti-Islamic tropes.

‌For example, when Spanish far-right VOX party leader Santiago Abascal recently welcomed Israeli Minister Amichai Chikli to a global far-right meeting in Madrid he said Israel is in the "vanguard of civilisation surrounded by barbarism," a country facing "satanic terrorism."‌

"Morocco has emptied its prisons and sent all its criminals to Spain."

‌When the VOX party candidate for the European elections, sitting MEP Jorge Buxade, joined a live televised debate days before the European elections he said: "The greatest security threat facing España is at our borders." 

He continued: "Brussels has abandoned Spain at our borders in Ceuta and Melilla," adding that "Morocco has emptied its prisons and sent all its criminals to Spain."

‌In dramatically different views expressed live on Spanish television, a heated debate saw left party leaders like Ione Belarra of Podemos accused Buxade and VOX party policies of being "racist" and "fascist."

‌It's a strategy with echoes of far-right leaders across the world, from Donald Trump to Javier Milei to Georgia Meloni, Marine Le Pen, and Viktor Orban.

‌The EU received more than a million asylum applications in 2023, the most since 2016 when the term 'migration crisis' emerged, and while some politicians are amplifying their anti-immigration rhetoric. 

A recent Eurobarometer poll of voter priorities ahead of the European elections study suggests it isn't one of voters' top concerns. It put immigration in seventh behind the economy, health, climate change and other concerns.

Other surveys put it higher, with a Kapa Research sample of more than 10,000 Europeans in 10 member countries putting immigration in second place.

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Anti-immigration and the European elections

‌Some politicians see the immigration issue as a way to win votes, but when they reach power they're faced with the reality of a labor shortage in certain sectors, particularly agriculture.

‌CGTN spoke to Dr. Andrew De Petris, scientific director at the Centre For European Policy, who uses Italy - where far-right leader Giorgia Meloni leads the current government - as an example.

"On one side, the current Italian government is trying to picture immigration mainly as a problem," he said. "On the other side, the same government is actually giving a legal entrance permit, for working reasons, especially for non-EU migrants in the agricultural sector - 150,000 new workers a year in the next three years."

‌He added: "Most of the migrants coming to Italy and working in the agriculture sector are working illegally. They don't have papers, they don't have registration.

‌"So it's nearly impossible to integrate them if they don't exist. To access financial support, social support, welfare, healthcare, basic services."

‌The European elections will provide an important insight into whether the far right's anti-immigration rhetoric is a winning strategy.

‌But beyond that rhetoric, Europe needs migrants. The question is if it's willing to accept them or not.

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