Having a job does not mean being integrated
Soraya Mohamedi · Employment Area Coordinator, Ubuntu Canarias · 8 min read · Published 2 November 2026
The data in the new OPI and OBERAXE report put figures on inequalities that those of us working in social inclusion have known about for a long time. But they also force us to ask some uncomfortable questions.
Some reports are worth reading slowly. Not only for the data they contain, but for what they make us question.
On 28 October the II Analysis Note for monitoring the Strategic Framework for Citizenship and Inclusion, against Racism and Xenophobia was published. It was prepared by the Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI) and the Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE).
The document looks at indicators on education, employment, housing, participation, integration and discrimination. And it puts on the table a reality that deserves more than a statistical reading: opportunities are not shared out on equal terms.
Some figures catch your attention. Others are worrying. And some should simply make us think about how we understand inclusion.
Having a job does not always mean leaving exclusion behind
One of the most significant figures in the report is the difference in the risk of poverty among people who are in work.
Roughly one in three foreign workers from countries outside the European Union is at risk of poverty. Among employed Spanish nationals, the figure is around one in ten.
Let us stop here for a moment.
We are talking about people who work, who keep to their hours, who keep essential sectors of the economy going and who, even so, cannot get away from economic vulnerability.
This leads to a question we should ask ourselves when we talk about getting people into work: are we helping people get a job, or are we helping them build a decent life through it?
Because it is not the same thing.
Getting people into work should not be measured only by the number of contracts signed. It also matters what conditions those contracts offer, whether they allow people to live independently, whether there is stability and whether people can develop their professional skills.
Working and still living in poverty cannot be presented as a story of successful integration.
When training does not find its place
Another aspect covered by the report is the gap in labour market entry between foreign and Spanish graduates.
The differences appear both in vocational training and in university studies, and they are especially marked among foreign women.
Overqualification is also a concern, and it particularly affects people from countries outside the European Union.
Behind these indicators there is a well-known reality: professionals who arrive with qualifications, experience and knowledge, but who face huge difficulties in carrying that background over into their new working life.
Degrees waiting for recognition, administrative procedures, not knowing how skills can be accredited, language barriers, a lack of professional networks and difficulties in accessing certain jobs.
Sometimes a person who has spent years training ends up accepting any opportunity because they need to work, regularise their situation or support their family.
And so there is a loss that is not only individual. We also lose out as a society.
We lose talent, experience, knowledge and abilities that could be contributing to the place where we live.
We cannot talk about making the most of talent if we are not able to recognise it.
Migrant women: an inequality that needs its own perspective
The report shows once again that inequalities do not affect all migrants in the same way.
Foreign women face specific difficulties in finding work, are more concentrated in certain sectors and have worse results on some indicators of access to employment.
Many work in care, cleaning, hospitality and other essential services. These sectors hold up much of our daily life, but they often offer precarious working conditions and few chances of promotion.
We cannot talk about inclusion without bringing in a gender and intercultural perspective.
Nor can we design employment pathways while ignoring family responsibilities, caring duties, administrative barriers or the difficulty of finding training that fits people’s circumstances.
A migrant woman does not need us to lower our expectations of what she can do. She needs us to remove the barriers that limit her access to it.
Racism also has consequences for work and income
Another part of the report deserves special attention: discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin.
Data from the study by the Council for the Elimination of Racial or Ethnic Discrimination, included in the note, show that work and access to housing are among the areas where respondents report the most experiences of discrimination.
80% report discrimination at work and 73% in access to housing.
These percentages should make us think.
Because when we talk about discrimination, we are not only talking about unpleasant comments, prejudice or individual attitudes.
We are also talking about opportunities that never come, CVs that never get a reply, rooms that are suddenly no longer available once the landlord learns where the person asking is from, and people who feel they have to keep proving that they deserve to be where they are.
The report also records a very high perception of negative labels being attached to the Arab and Amazigh/North African population.
This reminds us that living together across cultures does not happen just because people from different places share the same territory.
Living together needs recognition, equal treatment, spaces to take part and firm action against discrimination.
It is not enough to ask migrants to integrate. We also have to ask ourselves what conditions we are creating so that they can.
Housing, legal status and employment are not separate problems
When a person does not have a stable legal status, finding decent work can become an obstacle course.
When they do find work, but their income does not allow them to access housing, their inclusion is still held back.
When they live in an overcrowded room, have no privacy or have to spend a disproportionate part of their income on rent, their independence also suffers.
The report shows important differences in the housing conditions of foreign nationals from outside the European Union compared with Spanish nationals.
And here is something I consider essential: we cannot act on one part of reality and expect the rest to sort itself out.
Employment guidance, information on immigration procedures, social support, digital skills and access to community resources need to be connected.
People’s lives do not work in departments.
The Canary Islands: a reality that also needs answers
In the Canary Islands, talking about immigration and inclusion has a very concrete meaning.
We are a place of arrival, of transit, of residence and of living together. A place where migration is part of our social and economic reality.
The report lists the Canary Islands Plan for Immigration and Intercultural Coexistence 2026-2029 among the specific regional strategies in this field.
It is an important reference, but plans need to turn into actions, resources, coordination and results that can be evaluated.
We also need to look at our own island reality. We cannot take for granted that national indicators describe exactly what happens in Gran Canaria.
We need to know our own gaps: what happens with access to employment, which sectors hire most migrants, what difficulties women face, how legal status affects getting into work and what barriers exist to accessing housing.
And, above all, we need to listen to the people who live these situations.
What role do social organisations play?
I think there is a reflection here that falls especially to those of us who work in social intervention.
Associations and third-sector organisations cannot limit ourselves to managing immediate needs. Nor should we become places where people come again and again to sort out paperwork, get information or ask for help without making progress towards their independence.
Our work should help people know their rights, identify their options, build skills, access opportunities and manage more independently.
We need to accompany people, but also to give them tools.
We need to guide, but also to connect resources.
We need to detect needs, but also to take them to the places where public policies are designed.
And we need to work as a network. No association can respond on its own to such a complex reality.
At Ubuntu Canarias we believe in work that combines welcome, employment guidance, information on immigration procedures, digital skills and intercultural coexistence. Work that does not leave people permanently dependent, but helps strengthen their independence and participation.
The data in this report help us understand why this work is needed.
The question we should be asking
After reading the document, there is one idea I keep coming back to.
We have made progress in recognising rights, in the tools for regularisation and in building inclusion policies. But there is still a significant distance between the rights that are recognised and the opportunities people can actually exercise.
We can talk about integration, but if a person works and is still at risk of poverty, we need to review what we mean by inclusion.
We can talk about equal opportunities, but if a professional cannot get her training recognised because she was born in another country, we need to ask which barriers we are still keeping in place.
We can talk about living together, but if racial origin still determines access to work or housing, we still have a lot of work ahead of us.
And we can celebrate the diversity of our society, but diversity on its own does not guarantee equality.
This is not about doing anyone a favour. It is about recognising that migrants are part of our society, contribute to it and have the same right to build a decent life.
Perhaps it is time to stop asking how hard migrants try to integrate and start asking what we, as a society, are doing to make that integration truly possible.
Because inclusion is not proven with speeches or participation figures.
It is proven when a person can work without being exploited, live without being discriminated against, access housing, practise their profession, exercise their rights and feel part of the society they live in.
And that is not yet guaranteed.
Source: II Analysis Note for monitoring the Strategic Framework for Citizenship and Inclusion, against Racism and Xenophobia. Permanent Immigration Observatory (OPI) and Spanish Observatory on Racism and Xenophobia (OBERAXE), 2026.