by The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has compared in the Congress of Deputies to explain the work priorities of her department during this legislature. Among them she has highlighted the desire to improve coverage of the minimum vital income (MIV)with fewer requirements so that it reaches more potential beneficiaries, or the collaboration of his ministry with Nobel Prize winner Abhijit Banerjee, with whom he met last Tuesday afternoon, in the evaluation of his policies through a Social Policy Laboratory.
The provision of minimum vital income It was approved in May 2020, five months after the start of the previous legislature and two months after the state of alarm was decreed in Spain due to the covid-19 pandemic. Three and a half years since then, and with an annual investment by the ministry of almost 3,000 million euros per year, more than 750,000 families have benefited from it. There are a total of two million people, almost half of them minors, who “It is equivalent to 45% of the people who are in extreme poverty in Spain“. Since its installation in 2020, the minister has assured that the rental thresholds have increased by 31%. In this way, an adult who lives alone is guaranteed a minimum income of 785 euros per month, and a family of two adults and two minors, about 1,238 euros.
However, it still does not reach all the people who need it. “Even recognizing what has been done so far, we have to continue moving forward and implementing improvements in the management of the benefit that facilitate its application and processing, adapting the information systems to citizens,” he stated. Saiz. For example, the minister has reported that she pretends eliminate the termination of the cohabitation unit when the owner dies. Right now, in practice it means that you have to request the benefit again. And something similar happens with the registration of a new person in the household when they are a beneficiary of the IMV. They also want to eliminate automatic extinction for them.
“We will continue to make efforts to publicize the minimum vital income among potential beneficiaries through specific information campaigns and we promote active search measures among potential beneficiaries who have not yet accessed the benefit,” he assured, recognizing that “not all people who could be entitled to the benefit end up requesting it.”
policy laboratory
Saiz has also announced the creation of a policy evaluation laboratory along with Professor Abhijit Banerjee, Nobel Prize winner in Economics. “When the evaluation process ends in March of this year, we will have obtained evidence regarding the actions that may have a greater or lesser impact on the support of vulnerable people. Because there is a fundamental aspect: Even though the guarantee of income is essential, it is not enough to remove anyone from exclusion“, he pointed out.
In the opinion of the ministry, support policies are needed such as those they have developed in projects to reinforce self-esteem, integration into the community, health care, educational reinforcement or job training: “I emphasize that situations of poverty are not combated exclusively with a minimum income. Social policies are needed that accompany people in the breadth of their needs”.
Strengthen the reception system
In terms of migration, Saiz has indicated that, based on the arrival data in 2023, it is necessary increase the capacities of the international protection reception system. Thus, within the framework of the Recovery, Transformation and Resilience Plan, in the next four years they plan to increase both the places and the humanitarian care that are managed directly by their department.
Furthermore, they have indicated that they will pay special attention to particularly vulnerable groups, strengthening the network of reception centers for people seeking international protection for reasons of LGTBIphobia and for people with disabilities. “Although there are already centers and resources sensitive to adequate and specific care, in the reception system the care for this group will be deepened,” she noted. It is expected that the entities with which the concerted action is carried out will have a percentage of places reserved for people with these circumstances.
More women abroad
Saiz has also emphasized that, since 2018, the growth of the national population abroad has essentially occurred at the expense of women. While the number of foreign-born men has increased by 150,000, 568,000 women have done so, which represents 81% of the total.
“Although it has stabilized in the last three or four years, this significant increase in women has affected the composition of the foreign-born population in Spain. It has increased by 3% since 2010. Besides, The concentration of work in the areas of care and at home places foreign women in a situation of greater vulnerability“he assured.
The fact that the feminization of migration has been accentuated “in a notable way” in the last decade in Spain demands, according to the minister, specific recognition of the migration phenomenon. “This systemic inequality produces, among other things, that 36.7% of women victims of gender violence be foreign“he indicated.
Specifically, the The rate of victims per thousand women aged 14 or older was almost three times higher among foreign women than among Spanish women.. This represents an “extraordinary overrepresentation of the total number of women residing in Spain”, which is why she believes that specific policies and procedures need to be articulated that address the specific situations of foreign women in the country. With the aim of strengthening its protection and the gender perspective, she has announced that, In the reception system and in the humanitarian care program, various mechanisms for evaluation and continuous improvement of the protocols will be established. which already exists in collaboration with organizations such as UNHCR.
It is also committed to modifying the Immigration Regulations to reduce the multiple permit figures that are now in force, as announced last December. With this, they seek to enhance the telematic processing of procedures, regulate the status of family members of Spanish citizens and adapt the conditions for obtaining a long-term residence permit with the Blue Card.
