People who have recently immigrated to Spain have lost their jobs twice as fast as native Spaniards, according to the Numbers USA website. In 2009, Spain had the highest employment rate in the European Union at 17.4 percent.
Spain has resorted to more draconian measures when dealing with illegal immigrants, according to the "Brussels Journal." Police in major cities are given weekly quotas for rounding up illegal immigrants.
The Spanish government also began a new program that pays unemployed immigrants to leave and return to their native country. The program pays them before and after they leave, forcing them to surrender their residency. As of May 2009, only about 4,000 people had taken up the Spanish government on its offer.
