Políticas de reclutamiento de trabajadores en España: La construcción social de “emigrantes patriotas” e “inmigrantes responsables”

Abstract

Within the realm of the Anthropology of public policies, this paper analyzes the processes and state practices surrounding the creation of the categories of "emigrant" and "immigrant". It also analyses how these two categories are created, regulated and managed in the specific context of two labour recruitment schemes in Spain: Spaniards recruited to work abroad during the Franco dictatorship and non-Spaniards recruited to work in Spain in the first decade of the 21st century (2004-2008). The interest of this paper lies in the emergence of a set of discourses and knowledge produced by governments and non-governmental institutions and which is understood as part of a routine of power and tutelary control that fosters the construction of new subjectivities. This essay pays attention to the multiple interactions and encounters of these immigrants and emigrants with civil servants, NGOs, cultural mediators, politicians and businesspeople who are actively involved at the local or national level in processes of labour recruitment for temporary jobs in certain areas of the labour market.