How do you manage?

There should have been a drum-roll before Sánchez's announcement, but you'll have to imagine one instead. The key to effectively managing migration is... Well, 'managing it well'. The same speech also provided the answer to another key question - namely, 'Why hasn't Sánchez been managing the situation in the Canaries well, or indeed at all?' The PSOE leader's answer to that seems to be: because illegal migration only accounts for about 6% of new arrivals in Spain.

That corrosive political polarisation that now exists across Europe is especially noticeable whenever migration is discussed. Left wing leaders such as Sánchez brand any appeal for tighter border controls as 'xenophobic', while centre-right parties such as Vox stoke hysteria by portraying non-Spaniards as delinquents and criminals. Those who do work, of course, have stolen a job from a Spaniard.

Vox's stance on this matter isn't a policy. It's an emotive campaign designed to generate division and suspicion - and a recent poll suggests that it's working. Apparently, 57% of Spaniards now believe there are 'too many' migrants in Spain and 75% associate them with negative concepts. Yet the poll doesn't distinguish between legal and illegal migration - a crucial distinction that is often lacking in the wider discussion.

The leftist stance also distorts the debate, by branding any talk about increased security or the return of illegal migrants to their home countries 'xenophobic'. In fact, the entire discussion of this issue would be much more effective if the 'pro-immigration' and 'anti-immigration' labels were discontinued. Their only function is to gloss over complexities and obscure the distinction between legal and illegal migration (and the different sorts of 'management' required by each). Once a party is stamped with one or the other designation, people rarely bother to scrutinise its actual policies - if it has any, that is.

Sánchez's policy on illegal migration - and his thoughts about how to manage the situation in the Canaries - remain a mystery. He has, however, called for the EU to start applying its new Pact on Migration and Asylum from next year, rather than 2026. Amongst other things, this calls for 'robust screening' at borders and 'efficient returns [...] for those not eligible for international protection'. But wait, that makes Sánchez 'anti-immigration', doesn't it?