Latin Americans and public administration in Spain. Social perception of foreign groups

Abstract

From the proposal about the components of the civil society by Perez Diaz, the foreign migrants as contributors in the Spanish society are analyzed. The administrative registration and the relation with the State has been studied as a participation form. One looks for to detect and to analyze the forms of answering of the international immigrants in this scope. It constitutes a form of relation with the institutions, independently of its situation with the authority and the disposition or not of residence permissions. The distribution of the foreigners is by nationality of continent and the participation of the people from America is clearly noticed. The data sources are: the Census of 2001, the Amnesties of 2000 and 2001 and the Registries of Residents. Special mention deserves the results in Catalunya, in addition to the analysis at level of Spain. The Latin Americans would display the greater amount of people waiting for an amnesty, who nevertheless have made the voluntary inscription in the Registration Office. The people from other continents do not make this inscription if its situation is not regulated; or at least not in the same proportion than that from the American people. In its case, the form to be related to the authorities is independent from its administrative situation (to have or not the residence permission).