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One has noticed a rise of immigrants in recent years in
most Spanish homeless shelters. While immigrant men are mostly in night hostels,
immigrant women and children are mostly in housing provided by an organization.
Different causes for this increase can be distinguished:
the tightening of Spanish law with regards to work and residence permits
(and thus the increase of undocumented migrants in the country) being the cause
that affects specifically those migrants who are undocumented. The other reasons
only refer to documented migrants[4].
However, the subsidies shelters receive aren’t only
insufficient for helping undocumented migrants. They’re also insufficient for
helping the other homeless.
Rafael Conde Salazar from RAIS explains that generally,
the necessities of both groups are very different from each other: while
undocumented migrants usually have social ties, no mental disorders nor
addictions and are motivated to get out of their situation, other homeless
receive help to regain a certain stability.
[4] For instance: homeless organizations are receiving special subsidies for
working with legal immigrant homeless; the food and work necessities of
immigrants and other homeless are similar.