00:00Spain's Minister for Economy, Trade and Business, Carlos Cuerpo, told Euronews that migration
00:07is an opportunity for Europe, but that it has taken a racist undertone.
00:13He argued that the influx of workers due to migration can provide an economic lifeline
00:17for Europe, a continent that is struggling to keep up with its aging population.
00:23The minister said that in the case of Spain, which is now the fastest growing economy in
00:27the euro area, the flow of workers from other countries has boosted its economy.
00:33Migration is a big opportunity for Spain.
00:36There's an analysis from the Bank of Spain saying that between 0.4 and 0.7 percentage
00:41points of per capita growth for the past three years, which per capita growth in total was
00:45around three percentage points, 0.4 to 0.7 were due to migration, were thanks to migration.
00:51Cuerpo said that the debate around migration, both legal and irregular, is being instrumentalized
00:56by fake news, and a coordinated political push by conservative forces through statements
01:02including that some cultures cannot be assimilated.
01:05I think those sort of statements have an undertone of racism, and I think we should really combat
01:12that through data and through evidence.
01:14One of the elements that is happening is, of course, these false narratives and these fake
01:20news in terms of the impact of migration that are leading towards a negative bias.
01:25And that's not grounded in data.
01:27Earlier this week, EU ministers agreed on sweeping changes for migrant returns and repatriations.
01:33The Spanish minister argued that the focus, instead, should be on integration.
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