Internal Migration: Demographic, Economic, and Social Impacts
The Consequences of Traditional Internal Migration
Demographic Impacts:
- Imbalances in population distribution, leading to depletion in some areas and high densities in others, particularly on the periphery.
- Influences the age and sex structure:
- Increases the sex ratio in some emigration areas, hindering family formation.
- Causes population aging in rural areas and rejuvenation in urban areas.
Economic Impacts:
- Initially, rural areas saw increased population resources.
- Over time, sub-economies were generated due to the departure of young and skilled workers, decreasing productivity and efficiency.
- In cities, massive immigration caused congestion and economic problems related to land, housing, equipment, and services.
Social Impacts:
- Assimilation problems occurred as migrants moved from traditional rural communities to large, competitive urban societies.
- Integration often did not happen for the next generation.
Environmental Impacts:
- Traditional ecosystems in migrant origin areas were abandoned and deteriorated, especially in large mountain cities.
- Although accelerated growth occurred due to immigration, problems like air pollution and noise arose in large cities.
Current Internal Migration (Since the 1975 Crisis)
Motivations:
- Varied, including industrial, residential, and return migration.
Multidirectional Flows:
- Greater diversity in origin and destination areas.
- Migrants no longer predominantly come from rural areas.
- Destination areas include smaller urban municipalities, rural areas, and even areas within the same province or autonomous region, rather than solely large urban centers in other provinces and regions.
Profile of Migrants:
- Diverse: young, elderly, unskilled, and skilled individuals.
Current Internal Migration Rates:
Current Types of Internal Migration
A) Labor Migration:
- Motivations are work-related, featuring young adults.
- Emigration originates from old areas, declining industrial centers, and cities.
- Destination is urban centers with economic dynamism in other regions, often located within the same region or province.
- Migration to other regions has slowed down, with varying migration balances.
- Provinces tend to have positive balances in areas of interest (e.g., Barcelona, Ebro Valley).
- Many emigration provinces have alternating positive and negative balances, closely linked to the economic situation and job market flexibility.
- During expansionary economic times, migrants move to proactive areas in tourism or construction, resulting in negative net migration.
- During recessive periods, migrants return as temporary contracts run out, leading to positive balances.
- Provinces with negative balances include some older immigration provinces that have invested (Madrid, Barcelona, Bizkaia, Gipuzkoa, Zaragoza) and provinces with traditional emigration (Avila, Zamora, Burgos, C. Real, Teruel, Asturias).
- Interregional migration has slowed, while interprovincial migration has grown.
- Intramunicipal migration has changed.
- A novel aspect is the increasing role of foreign domestic migration.
B) Residential Migration
C) Return Migration
D) Habitual Movements:
- Work causes swings between residence and workplace.
- Leisure causes weekend and tourism movements.
Consequences of Current Internal Migration
- Labor: Demographic and economic imbalances.
- Residential: Overaging in central urban areas, changes in population composition and social peripheries, changes in indigenous ways of life.
- Return: Overaging (retirees), potential for young business creation to retain migrants.
- Swings: Traffic problems in large cities, increased income in leisure recipient sites.