Every week dozens of African immigrants risk their lives to reach the south of Spain in small boats known as
pateras
. Some drown, and many are returned to Morocco, probably to try again. The ones who do come ashore are usually destitute, and face a precarious future as illegal immigrants trying to make their way into Europe to find work.
A surprisingly large number of the women émigrés are pregnant; a stubborn myth holds that if a woman gives birth to a baby in Spain it will be eligible for Spanish nationality....
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