Integration, assimilation and the respect of the cultural differences in migration policies: in France and Spain

The history of French migratory flows is usually traced back to the French colonial past in Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria, but these have also developed for internal causes, such as the need for foreign labor to cope with the demographic crisis, caused during the twentieth century above all by the two world wars, during which those who had enlisted in the French army without being born in France had already a central role (Viet, 1998). The Spanish example is emblematic for the difference with which the issue of the Roma communities was dealt with, since unlike France and the European States that have dealt this with policies focused on non-recognition and evictions, Spain has managed to solve the integration problem. According to many surveys and publications, only Spain houses about 970 thousand people of Roma ethnicity, about 2% of the entire population, who are called gitanos or gypsies, without a negative meaning; the gypsies themselves share this denomination with pride and feel like gypsis and at the same time Spaniards.