Spain: from migration to immigration

By Belén González de la Parra from DEFOIN

Migratory movements and trends are one of the most relevant and important social phenomena of the last few years. As far as Europe is concerned, the Mediterranean has established itself as one of the major entry points for migrants from Africa and other regions.

In this sense, Spain is one of the countries with the greatest migratory affluence in the European Union. In the first half of the year 2022 alone, Spain has increased its population by 182,141 people, largely due to a positive migratory balance of 258,547 people. But this is not only due to immigration arriving from the Mediterranean, but also to immigration from all regions of the world, such as Latin America. Thus, this country has gone from being one of the main emigrant-sending countries to one of the main immigrant-receiving countries.

Nevertheless, immigration has many positive aspects for the receiving societies, economically, socially, and culturally. Thus, despite certain Spanish political movements that defend the negativity of immigration, reports such as the one developed by the Economic and Social Council (2019) establish that, specifically in Spain, the phenomenon of immigration has been and is one of the key factors of economic growth, mainly due to its contribution to the increase in the active population and to the development and dynamism of labour-intensive sectors with great weight in the Spanish economy, such as construction, hospitality, tourism, commerce, agriculture and domestic service.

The report also highlights that, in general, the integration of immigrants in the host community in Spain is positive and is even rated above the European average. All this information, which is only a brief outline of the issue we are dealing with here -the migratory situation in Spain- inevitably invites us to reflect on the current view of immigration and the situation of all those people who leave their home countries, whether forced to do so, for example, due to the war, or voluntarily. Acceptance of interculturality and its benefits is crucial for further progress in improving societies, both economically and socially. Migration is part of this change, and it is therefore necessary to create effective policies for its management, without forgetting the human component: people.