About Lamine Jamal and Migrants Positive Contributions

By: Ayman Okeil

On Tuesday, July 9, 2024, Spain advanced to the final of the European Nations Championship (Euro 2024 final), after winning by two goals to one over the French team. The equalizing goal for Spain came from Lamine Jamal, a Spanish player of Moroccan origin. This goal made him the youngest scorer in a Euro final. Jamal was born in Esplugues de Llobregat, a municipality in the province of Barcelona. He is the son of a Moroccan father and an Equatorial Guinean mother, and he grew up in a neighborhood inhabited by migrants and workers. Although I have little interest in football, the story of Jamal celebrating the goal he scored in France caught my attention. When the player celebrates any goal he scores, he refers to the number “304”. This celebration was not random, because it turned out that these numbers are the last three digits of the postal code for the Spanish neighborhood of Rocafunda in Catalonia, where Jamal lived his life. This neighborhood is known as a hub for migrants and workers. The neighborhood in which Jamal grew up has been a target for right-wing parties in Spain in recent years. Spain’s far-right Vox party has called this neighborhood a “multicultural garbage dump” and a “dung mill”, and they have demanded the expulsion of migrants from it.

But far from Jamal belonging to the place where he spent his life, he emerged from it to become a famous and well-known football player. The player’s celebration and his contribution to Spain reaching the final of the European Championship, where the financial prizes that the champion can reap amount to 28 million euros, exemplifies a crucial point. It is the positive impact migrants can have on their host communities, which was the focus of the recent report of Special Rapporteur on the human rights of migrants, Ambassador Jihad Madi. The report, titled “Reconsidering Positive Contributions of Migrants through a Human Rights-Based Approach”, discussed the contributions of migrants to host communities through a balanced, evidence-based view. The report concluded that migrants can have a positive impact, as they represent 41% of the workforce in Arab countries, and contribute significantly to innovation, creativity, and entrepreneurship. Successful integration of migrants leads to a richer society, as demonstrably proven by the story of the Spanish player of Moroccan origin, Lamine Jamal. However, the report acknowledged that a large portion of migrants currently resort to irregular travel, and that even high-income countries resort to using these irregular migrants to fill labor shortages. While I understand the economic factors that may drive this, I do not prefer that the numbers of illegal migrants increase, as the risks of this type of irregular migration can often outweigh its benefits. Therefore, it is important for migrants to follow regular, legal migration routes, and to be aware of the local laws of the host countries and the legal procedures that regulate their residence and presence in destination countries. Even if migrants are not fully aware of these procedures, it is the role of governments and civil society to direct and support immigrants in navigating these legal channels correctly. Initiatives that promote the integration of regular migrants into society should be strongly supported. Without such efforts, there will continue to be misinformation and hate speech targeting migrants in the communities where they have taken refuge, whether fleeing the horrors of wars or in search of a better life. This can ultimately lead to risks for the host communities and create a state of mistrust between migrants and the communities in which they aspire to live.