Arturo Escarda
Non-EU residents in Lanzarote are not entitled to travel discounts. It sounds like that. Although our politicians are full of talk about equality in the rights of citizens residing in the Canary Islands and Spain, it turns out that this is not always the case. It is not enough to exploit illegal immigrants or human trafficking, which is later indirectly sponsored by unscrupulous businessmen, willing to earn lots of money by taking advantage of the helpless situation of those who come in search of a better life.
Much has been said about the convenience of legalizing immigrants. Often politicians of all colors have relied on their supposed love for human beings and respect for the rights of people to justify the regularization of undocumented immigrants. And it cannot be argued that some of these politicians and businessmen were really sincere in their intentions.
But what is most likely to seem to followers of this exciting and treacherous world of politics as the real reason for successive legalizations is the economic benefit that the State obtains from workers who would otherwise not contribute to Social Security.
It surprises locals and strangers to learn from a lot of regularized immigrants on the Island that non-EU residents are not entitled to a 38 percent discount on travel between the islands or to the peninsula. The same happens in relation to maritime transport. And so, what distinguishes full-fledged Spaniards from those who obtain a residence permit is their citizenship, their status as a Spanish citizen.
It is paradoxical that after hundreds of years of struggles on the European continent for the right to be a citizen, a concept coined in classical Greece and exported to Europe by the glorious French revolutionaries, but not fully materialized until well into the 20th century, even the laws and legal precepts that regulate society make a distinction between citizens and non-citizens. And it is that, as in classical Greece, democracy divides people into citizens and those who are not. And this in the 21st century is something that degrades democracy itself and the values in which it is shielded.
Raúl Alberto Castro has been residing legally in Lanzarote for almost 20 years and has become a true symbol in the fight to equate the rights of residents with the rights of Spaniards. Since 1989, Castro has been fighting for something that he considers, as most citizens will, fundamental for a minimum equalization between all residents in the Canary Islands. He is already known everywhere and in all political parties. LA VOZ went to his home in Arrecife to explain to our readers the long process of struggle that he has been carrying out for more than fifteen years. Castro demands that the taxes that residents have to pay be taken into account, that like everyone else they contribute their grain of sand to the State coffers, and that grain is no smaller or more insignificant than the others. Public money belongs to everyone, and if everyone contributes it, it is inconceivable that only citizens, in the legal sense of the word, can benefit from the discounts for living in territory not integrated into the Iberian Peninsula.
The aid for air traffic, stipulated at 38 percent of the amount of the ticket, is borne by the central administration of the State, while the discount for maritime transport is the responsibility of the Autonomous Community.
Castro has presented letters and petitions to practically all the parties on the Island and to all the representatives of Lanzarote in the administrative machinery of the State. From Juan Pedro Hernández, who was the senator for Lanzarote for two years, to the socialist deputy in the Parliament of Spain, Olivia Cedrés, passing through the socialist senator at present, Marcos Hernández.
Petition to Zapatero
Castro recalls that during the rally offered by Zapatero in December 2003 in the Atlántida multiplex, he approached him to deliver a letter asking the former head of the opposition to intercede in favor of a historical, but unknown to the majority, demand of the resident immigrants in the Canary Islands.
And taking advantage of the fact that the current President of the Government of Spain is on vacation in Lanzarote these days, Castro wanted to appeal to Zapatero to correct an injustice that affects all immigrants and think about the potential votes of those who will one day become citizens. He even sent a letter through the General Directorate of the State to the residence of La Mareta. One of these days, ZP will read the letter from the resident of Lanzarote again, who is not a Spanish citizen, and may remember the famous Alliance of Civilizations and how this fact is framed in such a noble and hopeful idea.
