310- Identity: the
building blocks of
2. Literature
and philosophy
3. Art and
architecture
4. Performing
arts
5. Cinema
and fashion
6. Media and
communications
7. Food and drink 8. Living culture:
the details of
A touch of class
As you would expect, the Spanish social order comes
in layers, apportioned largely by economics but with
the residue of an older social structure (of landowners,
hidalgosand peasants) lingering in some places.
After Franco, the urban middle class grew rapidly and
remains the largest sector of Spanish society today.
Increasingly Spain looks to North African and Eastern
European migrants for its working class, but it’s the
gypsies who remain at the bottom of the heap. They
still form an underclass with below norm earnings,
living standards and life expectancy. Class structure
also varies by region. While government policies aimed
at redistributing wealth have had some success,
Madrid, Barcelona and the Basque Country have long
been the main earners. Out in the backwoods, in
La Mancha, Extremadura and Galicia, the middle
classes shrink.How multicultural is Spain?
Moorish history aside, Spain came to multiculturalism
rather late. Economic stagnation in the 20thcentury
meant it didn’t attract migrants from former colonies
in the way that the UK or France did. And they weren’t
exactly queuing round the block to enter Franco’s world- traditionally, people left Spain, not the reverse. The
situation has changed in the last 20 years, but Spain
still isn’t as ethnically diverse as other EU nations.
Large scale immigration has only occurred recently,
with government figures suggesting that just over four
million ‘foreigners’ now live legally in Spain. Morocco
and Ecuador have contributed most with half a million
each, followed by Romania and Colombia.
Upstaging the natives
The average adult
migrant to Spain has
a higher level of
education than the
average Spanish
national. Employment
levels in Spain are also
significantly higher
among migrants than
nationals.As many as 700,000
migrants are thought
to be living and working
in Spain illegally.8.1 The changing face of Spanish society:
class, race, family and gender
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