Spain needs immigrants. But does it still want them?

IT IS THE season of calm seas off the Sahara, and each week several hundred African migrants turn up on the shores of the Canary Islands, packed tightly into open fishing boats. Some of them, especially those from Mali, are fleeing violence. Many more are economic migrants, lured by the prospect of much higher wages in Europe, if they can somehow get there.

It is a hazardous trip: at least 900 migrants have died on this route so far this year. But most who make it to the Canaries eventually find their way to the Spanish mainland. There they find a country whose traditional welcome for immigrants is showing signs of strain.