Latin America-Spain migratory system: Has been the economic crisis a parenthesis?
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Abstract
The immigration from Latin America and the Caribbean to Spain in the turn of the century has been broadly studied since it originated flows of a large amount in times of economic expansion (1998-2007), when the Spanish labour market demanded workforce in the secondary segments. Since 2008 a shortening of inflows occurred as well as an increase of the return and ongoing migrations, consistent with the intensity of the economic crisis. These flows diminish during the incipient post-crisis period (2015-2017) and immigration resumes. With the target to deepen in these trends, this study is based on information provided by the Residential Variation Statistics microdata, which allows us to characterize the evolution of Latin Americans’ migrations to and from Spain. The sequence of these flows, regarding the countries of origin, and their features according to the age-sex patterns, inform us of disparate dynamics and differentiated migratory cycles, as well as of changes that point to a reconfiguration of migration trends throughout the study stage and of more intense and complex forms of mobility.