Spanish Migration: Internal and External Movements
Daily Movements: Migration and Mobility
Migration has been one of the most decisive factors in the evolution of both the spatial distribution of the structure and the total Spanish population. External migration, at times, eased the relationship between population and resources. More recent emigration to Europe contributed to financing part of Spain’s economic development. Internal migration, in its intensity and its impact on growth, has been responsible for the unbalanced distribution of the population. Spain was a country of emigration for various reasons, such as the unbalanced ratio of resources. You can see the transition from an attitude of internal stocking to another during which it leads into a tutelary character of immigration. During the twentieth century, Spanish and Ibero-American people emigrated to Western European countries.
External Migration
Emigration to Algeria began in 1830. Immigrants mainly came from the Mediterranean: Alicante, Murcia, and Almeria. They were farmers, men driven more by a shortage of crops than by a liking for the place. Emigration was temporary in some cases, but in others, the male managed to work, called their families, and stayed there. There was also emigration to Latin America, such as Argentina, Cuba, Uruguay, Venezuela, Mexico, and there were also flows to other countries like Canada and the U.S. Spain also joined the migrant stream, but as always, late. The ban was lifted on passenger traffic in the Atlantic, and it became an attraction for immigrants beginning in the republics. The flow of emigrants to America consisted of people from Galicia, the Canary Islands, the Basque Country, Cantabria, and Asturias. From the year 1920, emigration came from the northwest Peninsula, and the emigration fever spread from Galicia and Asturias to Leon. This was a mass emigration, dominated by males, to sparsely populated countries, increasing the value of resources. The character of emigration to America was very different after the civil war. South American countries needed immigrants to promote their economies. A selective immigration then appeared. After the exile suffered after the war, Spain was not able to supply troops. It was not until 1946 that liberalization failed, and Spain left in 1949 with international release when it was allowed. After that, emigration to America declined due to economic problems in Latin America.
Migration to Europe is one of the oldest but was very important in the twentieth century. Spanish emigrants sought work in industry and agriculture, and there was a trend toward France of Spanish and Portuguese. The First World War aroused the demand for labor quotas for Spanish agriculture and industry, with emigration coming from the Mediterranean, who returned after the war. Western Europe occurs in the early decades of the 20th century. The Treaty of Rome facilitated the recruitment of labor from the Mediterranean. Spain suffered a huge rural exodus and had a low domestic industrialization while emigration declined.
This caused emigration to Europe: France, Germany, Switzerland. Rural areas were the most affected. Emigrants’ remittances and tourism have contributed to the balance of payments in Spain and have facilitated industrialization. From 1973, there was a negative outflow because of the return of migrants; the European industry crisis provoked the return of emigrants.
Internal Migration
The industrial revolution sparked internal transfers of population that originated in Europe, a faltering rural sector, and a concentration of inhabitants in urban areas. The industrialization of Spain made the rural exodus and urbanization start late. Since the sixteenth century, Spain had developed a move inside and a concentration of population on the periphery. The industrial development of the Basque coast and Barcelona originated migration. Before the Civil War, emigration was intense, and the infrastructure of the dictatorship of Primo de Rivera and the Basque and Catalan industrialization mobilized significant demographic quotas. The decade of the 1930s reduced migration. In the early years of postwar economic deprivation that characterized internal emigration, it went to the big bureaucracy. From the 1950s, economic changes dramatically intensified the internal currents. Similarly, there were new areas like the Canary Islands and Andalusia. Since 1960, there has been an intensification of migratory movements to benefit the direct rural exodus to big cities and the emergence of new immigration centers such as Zaragoza and Seville, which were the new poles of industrial development, and this is added to the Mediterranean coastline. From the 1960s, the formation of peri-urban areas of large cities intensified. In the final period of the rural exodus, the volume of migration fell.
In the second half of the economic crisis, especially the industrial brake, the traditional migratory flows reversed. All emigration regions reduced their migration, and some of them, such as Aragon, became immigration points. Returns also began in the provinces of Extremadura and Andalusia.
- The economic crisis shortened the paths of emigration.
- The Balearic Islands and the Mediterranean region, through tourism and agriculture exports, offered positive balances.
- Raised less mobility, and intra-urban and interurban migration weighed more than urban-rural.
- The areas that were normally immigration areas reduced their balances.
Consequences of Internal Migration
- The creation of imbalances in the distribution of the population.
- Profound changes in the demographic structure.
- Changes in the economy, such as the loss of ability to modernize farms.
- The ecological effects of demographic deserts, such as the creation of anthropic ecosystems left abandoned.
Currently, outstanding residential migrations are performed by age groups and have a different social character. On the one hand, young people who reach the age of emancipation demand houses located in the periphery or metropolitan areas, and across related changes in demand for houses or less density. All these changes begin to be reflected in local densities.