The International Economic Crisis and its Impact on Spain and its Immigrant Population

Abstract

The impact of the international economic crisis in the Spanish immigration policy.- Preceded by a significant flow of immigrants in the last two decades of the twentieth century, the increase of the foreign residents in Spain since 2000 has been extraordinary. In 1999 the number of foreign residents in Spain was 750,000 (1.86% of the total population). Ten years later, foreigners living in Spain are more than 5.5 million (12% of the total population).But after 2007, flows of in-migrant workers have been modified as a result of the global economic downturn. The numbers of new immigrant workers in Spain have been dramatically reduced by the decline in demand in our labor market. The economic recession caused a shift in immigration policy in Spain, which to this point focused on amnesties of large influxes of immigrants in continuous progression. The new Spanish immigration policy is deterrent to those outside, clearly inclusive of those within, open to the repatriation of those who so desire, and, experimentally, fully decentralized.