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Country Resource - Spain
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Spain

ES
  • Population......................................................................... 47,260,584 (July 2021 est.)
  • Population growth rate .................................................................. -0.03% (2021 est.)
  • Birth rate..................................................... 8.05 births/1,000 population (2021 est.)
  • Death rate................................................ 9.78 deaths/1,000 population (2021 est.)
  • Net migration rate............................... 1.39 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2021 est.)
  • Ethnic groups*........................................ Spanish 86.4%, Moroccan 1.8%, Romanian 1.3%, other 10.5% (2018 est.)

* Data represent population by country of birth

CIA World Factbook

Profile
February 1, 2003

España: Hacia una nueva política migratoria

En la última mitad de la década de los 90, la inmigración llegó a ser un tema de vital importancia para los políticos y el público español.

Recent Activity

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Feature
November 18, 2015
Immigrants in the Smart City: The Potential of City Digital Strategies to Facilitate Immigrant Integration

The digital era offers opportunities for cities to improve access and outreach to residents, including immigrants and minority groups, through online tools and apps. This feature article explores ditigal-inclusion strategies in "smart" cities New York, London, and Barcelona, as well as the creative use of new technologies in response to the European refugee crisis.

Top Ten
December 1, 2009
Buyer's Remorse on Immigration Continues

The global recession has caused countries that once welcomed foreign workers by the tens and hundreds of thousands — particularly Spain — to rethink generous immigration policies as unemployment rates have risen.

Feature
November 5, 2009
Pay to Go: Countries Offer Cash to Immigrants Willing to Pack Their Bags

Many countries relied on low-skilled immigrant workers during good times. But Japan, Spain, and the Czech Republic have recently introduced "pay-to-go" programs to reduce the number of unemployed immigrants. MPI's Kristen McCabe, Serena Yi-Ying Lin, and Hiroyuki Tanaka, and Piotr Plewa of the European University Institute examine these programs and the larger policy questions they raise.

Top Ten
December 4, 2008
"Buyer's Remorse" on Immigration Policy

The current economic downturn has made many destination countries cautious about welcoming permanent migrants, with some expressing the policy equivalent of buyer's remorse: paying too high a price for something no longer desired.

Feature
June 28, 2007
Latin American Immigration to Southern Europe

Although most Latin Americans head to North America, the increasing flow of people from Latin America to Southern Europe reflects colonial and historical patterns as well as new economic opportunities. Beatriz Padilla and João Peixoto examine various data that show the region's popularity.

Feature
June 7, 2007
The Merits and Limitations of Spain's High-Tech Border Control

Since 2000, Spanish authorities have used a technology-driven system for detecting and apprehending migrants attempting to reach Spanish territory by boat. Jørgen Carling of the International Peace Research Institute in Oslo explains how smugglers have responded and why illegal migration to Spain continues.

Feature
November 1, 2006
Migrations Transsahariennes vers l'Afrique du Nord et l'UE: Origines Historiques et Tendances Actuelles

L'Europe du Sud connaît trop bien la migration irrégulière à partir des pays de l'Afrique du Nord comme le Maroc, l'Algérie et la Tunisie. Depuis le début des années 1990, de milliers de nord-africains ont tenté de traverser la Méditerranée afin d'atteindre l'Espagne et l'Italie.

Feature
November 1, 2006
Trans-Saharan Migration to North Africa and the EU: Historical Roots and Current Trends

Sub-Saharan Africans are increasingly migrating to North African countries, with some using the region as a point of transit to Europe and some remaining in North Africa. Hein de Haas of the University of Oxford examines the the region’s migration trends.

Top Ten
December 1, 2005
Extreme Measures: What Migrants Are Willing to Do to Get in and What Governments Will Do to Stop Them

With some countries narrowing their legal immigration channels, raising the bar for asylum, and increasing security measures at airports and land borders, migrants took unprecedented – and deadly – risks that captured headlines in 2005.

Top Ten
December 1, 2005
Challenges of Immigrant Integration: Muslims in Europe

Only recently have European politicians and public opinion leaders talked about the need to focus on the integration of immigrants and their children.

Pages
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Reports
April 2021

COVID-19 and the State of Global Mobility in 2020

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically curtailed cross-border mobility in 2020, affecting travelers and migrants around the world. This report presents a first-of-its-kind analysis of the many thousands of travel restrictions and border closures imposed by governments to curb the spread of the virus. It examines how these policies evolved, varied across countries and regions, and what these trends may mean for the future of international movement.

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Reports
September 2020

Driving Migrant Inclusion through Social Innovation: Lessons for Cities in a Pandemic

Since COVID-19 hit cities across Europe, many have struggled with how to sustain support for migrant inclusion in a time of social-distancing orders and likely budget cuts. This report explores how municipalities and their partners used social innovation to meet the challenges of the 2015–16 spike in arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants, and how those experiences can help localities weather the pandemic and put communities at the center of recovery efforts.

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Reports
May 2020

European Cities on the Front Line: New and Emerging Governance Models for Migrant Inclusion

As migration transforms cities across Europe—both large metropolises and small cities—there is a thriving debate about how to support immigrants’ integration into communities, labor markets, and health and education systems. This MPI Europe-International Organization for Migration report explores promising approaches that make the most of local governance tools to optimize migrant inclusion, even in the face of challenges.

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Reports
October 2019

Legal Migration for Work and Training: Mobility Options to Europe for Those Not in Need of Protection

As EU Member States struggle to deliver on the European Union's call to expand channels for foreign workers, they should focus more on attracting the middle- and low-skilled third-country nationals needed by the labor market yet for whom few opportunities for admission exist. They also would do well to consider their migration policies in light of labor market, foreign policy, and development objectives, rather than as a means to reduce irregular migration, this report cautions.

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Reports
April 2019

Spain’s Labor Migration Policies in the Aftermath of Economic Crisis

A relatively new destination for immigrants, Spain has developed a labor migration system that builds on longstanding relationships with countries outside the European Union and that actively involves employers, trade unions, and regional governments. This report examines how this legal framework has evolved in recent decades, and how it could serve as a model for EU policymakers in admitting non-EU workers.

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Reports
November 2017

Safe or Sorry? Prospects for Britons in the European Union after Brexit

Amid ongoing Brexit negotiations, much remains uncertain for the roughly 1 million UK citizens living elsewhere in the European Union. This report offers a demographic profile of these Brexpats, considering what form an EU-UK deal on citizens’ rights might take and identifying key challenges many Britons are likely to face—including difficulty securing legal status and accessing labor markets, social security, and health-care systems.

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Reports
November 2017

Beyond Transactional Deals: Building Lasting Migration Partnerships in the Mediterranean

Since the 2015–16 refugee crisis, European policymakers have eagerly sought cooperation with origin and transit countries in the hopes of stemming unauthorized migration to Europe. This approach is neither new, nor without its limitations. By examining the evolution of two longstanding Mediterranean partnerships—between Spain and Morocco, and Italy and Tunisia—this report offers insights on what has and has not worked.

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Reports
March 2016

Spain: New Emigration Policies Needed for an Emerging Diaspora

This report discusses Spain’s changing migration patterns in the wake of dramatic economic downturn, paying special attention to the effects of the emigration of young, native-born Spaniards. The report also focuses on policies geared toward engaging the increasing number of Spaniards abroad, finding that much of Spain's policy towards diasporas predates the 1980s.

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Reports
June 2015

Into the Mainstream: Rethinking Public Services for Diverse and Mobile Populations

Despite the broad appeal of the concept of "mainstreaming" in integration policy in Europe, few agree on its exact meaning. This report synthesizes the findings of the UPSTREAM project's country case studies, which examined the extent to which governments in France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the United Kingdom are employing mainstreaming to meet the needs of rapidly diversifying populations.

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Reports
November 2014

Aiming Higher: Policies to Get Immigrants into Middle-Skilled Work in Europe

This report is the final one in an MPI-International Labour Office series that examines the employment prospects of migrants in the EU (focusing on the case-study countries of the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom), as well as the effectiveness of integration and workforce development policies in helping these workers overcome barriers and ascend out of low-skilled work.

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Policy Briefs
September 2020

Brexit on the Backburner: Citizens’ Rights and the Implementation of the Withdrawal Agreement in a Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic hit just weeks after the United Kingdom formally left the European Union, delaying plans to implement the withdrawal agreement’s provisions on citizens’ rights. This policy brief assesses the progress countries have made in setting up systems to adjust the status of mobile EU and UK nationals, as well as steps countries can take to make up for lost time.

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Policy Briefs
February 2020

Seasonal Worker Programs in Europe: Promising Practices and Ongoing Challenges

Seasonal worker programs in the European Union have a long history, but have yet to find the sweet spot of working for migrants, employers, and countries of destination and origin alike. This policy brief explores some of the challenges common to these programs—drawing on examples in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand—and highlights promising practices.

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Policy Briefs
November 2018

The End of the Retirement Dream? British Pensioners in the European Union after Brexit

As Brexit approaches, British pensioners in the EU-27 face a series of issues beyond those of the wider British population of the EU-27. This issue brief explores the diversity of the pensioner population and unique challenges ranging from whether UK state pensions will rise with the cost of living, to tax, health care, and access to social assistance issues, before considering key policy questions and recommendations for both EU and UK policymakers.
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Books
June 2011

Migration and the Great Recession: The Transatlantic Experience

This edited volume addresses the impact of the economic crisis in seven major immigrant-receiving countries: the United States, Germany, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.