Before dawn Rachid, a 27-year-old Moroccan, makes his way to a roundabout in the centre of this southern Spanish town and waits for a job.
"Every morning at 6:30 I come here looking for work," Rachid, who declined to give his last name, told Reuters. He has not worked for three months.
By sunrise about 100 other illegal immigrants - men and women from Bulgaria, Congo, Ecuador and Gambia - have joined him on the roadside.
"All of us who don't have papers come here and those who need labour stop and take us off to work," said 20-year-old Georgina from Ecuador.
Shortly afterwards a van pulled up, the driver beckoned to her, and she climbed in.
Between 500,000 and 800,000 illegal immigrants live in Spain, according to estimates from Spain's General Workers' Union (UGT). Official figures show that in 2002 the country's population grew by 879,000 people - 695,000 of whom were registered immigrants.
Spaniards list immigration as one of their top five worries in opinion polls, but in the run up to a March 14 general election, the main parties are all but silent on the issue.
"They have nothing to offer. Because if they offer immigrants anything they will automatically lose votes," said Hannafi Hamza, head of the Moroccan immigrants' association ATIME.
Four years ago in El Ejido, race riots broke out between Moroccans and Spaniards, and isolated incidents of race-related violence have occurred since.
Spain, traditionally a country of emigrants, has only in the last decade or so received immigrants in large numbers.
Economists say immigration is good for the economy: it counters an ageing population, brings down wages in an economy with inflation running above the euro zone average and supplies labour to the booming construction sector and agriculture.
Construction alone accounts for 14 percent of the economy in terms of investment.
Ana Maria Corral, head of immigration for UGT, says the size of Spain's black economy is about 20 percent of gross domestic product, making it an attractive destination for illegal migrants.
"If you're considering emigrating...and you have the security that you're going to get a job in the underground economy, you'll prefer it to a country which has a smaller underground economy," she said.
The union criticises the government for not tackling the informal sector, although the government changed the law on immigration in 2000 and has reformed it three times since, each time making it harder to enter and stay in Spain.
"The hard-line official discourse against irregular immigration coexists with tolerance towards 'irregular businessmen' who abuse workers," it said in a recent statement.
Farmers in the area around El Ejido say work permits are preferable, not essential.
"Most of the time farmers have all their staff with papers...but at a (busy) moment they'll call anyone," said Antonio Cara, head of the El Ejido irrigation community.
The ruling Popular Party and opposition Socialists have hardly mentioned immigration in their campaigning and each party dedicates just a page of their election manifesto to it.
But one party is taking the issue seriously, putting it at the centre of its campaign. Posters plastered around towns in the south read "Immigration? Halt the Invasion!".
The National Democracy party, which has links with Jean-Marie Le Pen's National Front party in France and claims 600 to 700 members, is running in its first elections this year.
It wants to deport all illegal immigrants, and legal immigrants who do not have a job.
Moroccans, who often suffer worse discrimination than other groups in Spain, are the top target.
"Moroccan immigration is the main problem. Morocco has always been a natural enemy of Spain. Morocco is our main enemy," Juan Jesus Barranco, top of National Democracy's list of candidates for congress, told Reuters.
Many attribute hostility towards Moroccans to history: parts of Spain were under Arab rule from the eighth to the 15th century and as recently as 2002 Spain and Morocco came to an armed stand-off over the sovereignty of a tiny Mediterranean island.
"Because of immigration the standard of education is falling at a dizzying rate. They are being too generous with immigration," Barranco said.
The Socialists have an answer to that concern: in a bid to stop state schools becoming 'ghettos', they propose shuffling children between classes and schools to keep the immigrant quotient below about a third.
ATIME, the Moroccan immigrants' group, estimates that of the 27,000 Moroccans in Almeria, the province that includes El Ejido, as many as 22,000 live in shacks - some without water and light.
Immigrants in El Ejido say they are generally pessimistic about the future, and see a lack of will for integration.
For now, immigrants as a group are not worth chasing for votes as there are too few of them. In the past five years only some 80,000 people became citizens, allowing them to vote.
But by the next elections, or the ones after that, they could become a collective worth courting as the children of the early arrivals come of age.
ATIME's Hamza says the day when immigrants start to play a part in governing, even at a local level, is a long way off.
"Do you think society will accept it or will they say the Moors have returned to power? I think the second, they are not ready."
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