This article has its origins in my doctoral dissertation, submitted to the University of Barcelona in 2011. As a part of the investigation's theoretical framework, it explores the sociopolitical and symbolic context through which, since the mid-80s in Spain, the migration from non-EU countries has become a focus of intervention and public debate mediated by metaphors of otherness and negative differentiation. The paper explores three interrelated issues: (i) the dynamics of labor migration in Europe since the post-war period until the 1973 oil crisis; (ii) the political, administrative and legal dynamics that began to emerge in the Spanish context thereafter, designed to regulate immigration, and (iii) the set of representations and discursive strategies around non-EU immigration and immigrants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]