Spanish Internal Migration: Past and Present

Posted on Dec 17, 2024 in Geography

Internal Migration in Spain: Trends and Impacts

Migration is the movement of people in space. We distinguish between emigration, or the movement of the population from their place of origin, and immigration, the arrival of a population at a destination. Net immigration is the balance between immigration and emigration (SM = IE). If positive, it indicates net immigration; if negative, net emigration. In Spain, internal and external migrations have been a decisive event that continues to condition the current characteristics of the population. Added to these, since the 1990s, is growing foreign migration.

Internal Migration

Internal migrations are the movements of people within the borders of a country. We can differentiate between traditional, until 1975, and current, from that date.

Traditional Internal Migration

Traditional internal migration developed between the last third of the nineteenth century and the economic crisis of 1975. Characteristics:

1. The motivation was primarily labor migration.
2. The flows were unidirectional between emigration and immigration areas. The migrants came mainly from the countryside and headed to the big industrial cities or service centers, almost always located in other provinces or regions.
3. The characteristic profile of emigrants was young people with low qualifications.

Types of Traditional Internal Migration

There are two types:

a) Seasonal and temporary migration peaked between the last third of the nineteenth century and the early 1960s and were undertaken with the intent to return. In a few cases, these were seasonal movements to other rural areas for agricultural work at a time when the field was not very mechanized. Others were temporary displacements to the city at times of the year in which there was no work in the field, for non-agricultural jobs in construction, industry, or services.

b) The rural exodus took place between 1900 and 1975. It is a migration between rural and urban areas, either permanent or long-term. Its main motivation was to get work and higher incomes, but also influenced was the possibility of finding in the cities a better level of health, cultural activities, entertainment, and more personal freedom. The migrants came from backward areas of Galicia, the interior peninsula, and eastern Andalusia. First, they went to industrial areas of Catalonia, the Basque Country, and Madrid, and then to new industrial areas of the Mediterranean and the Ebro Valley and the tourist areas of the Levant, Balearic, and Canary Islands. Four distinct stages:

1. In the first third of the twentieth century, the rural exodus had a moderate level. It was motivated by an excess of manpower in rural areas due to the phylloxera crisis in the wine regions and the beginning of the mechanization of agricultural work in arable areas. The exodus was directed to major industries that provided jobs and was aided by the rise of public works during the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera. In many cases, migration was a cascade (village, regional head, the provincial capital, metropolis outside the province or outside the region).
2. During the Civil War and the postwar period, the rural exodus was tight. The cities suffered severe supply shortages, the supply of labor in industry was reduced due to the ravages of war, and the difficult reconstruction in the context of postwar self-sufficiency, with the Franco regime promoting the continuity of the rural population in the countryside.
3. Between 1950 and 1975, the rural exodus reached its highest volume. The causes were population growth, the crisis of traditional agriculture through mechanization, the industrial boom driven by the development plans, which generated jobs in the industrial cities, and the boom of tourism on the Mediterranean coast and islands, which also created a job offer in tourism services and construction. So target areas were expanded and formed two peninsular lines: the Mediterranean and the Ebro. They were joined by Madrid in the center of the Peninsula and the Balearic and Canary Islands. In this time, direct exodus to big cities predominated over cascade migration.
4. Since 1975, rural migration has declined. With the crisis, the former immigration industrialized areas, subject to a heavy conversion process, lost their appeal, and positive net migration was reduced or even turned negative. Instead, the former emigration areas reduced their output, and the negative migration balance was reduced or even turned positive due to the return of former migrants, early retirement pensioners, and the unemployed. After the crisis, the progress of agrarian technology, rural development policies, the implementation in rural areas of industrial activities and services from cities, residential migration, and return migration have helped to reduce the rural exodus.
5. At present, the rural exodus reaches very low values. The migrants come from agricultural areas that are more isolated and depressed and are aimed primarily at businesses within their own province or autonomous region.

Consequences of Internal Migration

1. In demographic terms, they are responsible for the imbalances in population distribution, emptying the interior and creating large densities on the periphery. They have also influenced the structure by sex and age.
2. In the economic field, in rural areas, at first, migration increased the resources of the population, but over time, diseconomies of subpopulation were generated because the younger and trained people left, decreasing productivity and performance. In cities, mass immigration caused diseconomies of congestion, problems of land, housing, equipment, and services.
3. On the social level, there were problems of assimilation of migrants passing from one community to another. Integration generally does not occur until the next generation.
4. In the environmental aspect, in the areas of origin of migrants, traditional ecosystems were abandoned and deteriorated, especially in the mountains. In the cities, rapid growth created problems of pollution.

Current Internal Migration

Since the 1975 crisis, another cycle begins:

1. The motivations of migration are more varied: industrial, residential, return to the place of origin.
2. The flows are multidirectional, with greater diversity in the areas of origin and destination. Migrants no longer come predominantly from the countryside and are directed less to the large urban municipalities in other provinces.
3. The profile of migrants is diverse: young, old, unskilled, and skilled.

Types of Internal Migration

Labor: These respond to work motivations and feature young adults (20-39 years). They come from ancient migratory areas and target the most dynamic economic centers located in other regions, especially in their own region or province.

Migration to other regions and provinces has slowed down and causes different net migration. Areas of the Mediterranean and the Ebro have positive balances, except for Barcelona and Zaragoza. Former provinces that have invested (Madrid, Barcelona, Zaragoza, Bizkaia) and provinces that hold traditional emigration (Avila, Zamora, Burgos) have negative balances.

Intraregional and intraprovincial migration have grown.

Intramunicipal migration has changed. Large municipalities and provincial capitals now have negative balances due to the spread of population and activities to urban municipalities, small and even rural.

The most novel aspect is the growing role of foreigners in internal migration, especially non-EU citizens, who are more predisposed to move in search of better work conditions and have fewer family ties.

Residential: These have residential motivations, by young and middle classes seeking affordable housing and environmental quality. Intra-urban migration occurs between the city center and various peripheral crowns. This is the case for Toledo and Guadalajara in relation to Madrid.

Return: This supposes the return of the population to emigration areas. Two modes:

• In part, these are carried out by migrants returning to their place of origin. Between 1975 and 1990, it mostly affected people over 55, retired or early retirement.
• There is also a current New Rural minority composed of people who leave town and move to rural areas.

Normal movements: These are regular trips for work and leisure. The resulting work swings between place of residence and work. The most common are among suburbs and central cities. The movement also causes leisure on weekends and tourism related to the improvement of living standards.