Understanding Migration and Urban Development
Causes of Migration: Demographic and Economic Factors
Two of the most frequent reasons for migration are demographic and economic pressures. Population growth without corresponding job creation leads to unemployment and low wages, pushing individuals to seek opportunities in other countries with labor demands.
Related Causes: Natural Disasters
Earthquakes, desertification, plagues, and prolonged droughts create instability and food insecurity, prompting migration.
Political Causes
Wars, persecution, and exile force people to emigrate.
Cultural Causes
These vary widely, from seeking more democratic societies to the attraction of specific locations, like Spain’s appeal to Northern European retirees due to its favorable climate.
Consequences of Migration: For the Country of Origin
Emigration can alleviate unemployment and social pressure but may also lead to a loss of skilled workers, impacting population demographics and potentially causing depopulation.
For the Country of Destination
Influxes of immigrants can strain resources, impact housing in peripheral and urban areas, and sometimes create social integration challenges.
For the Individual Migrant
Migration presents a series of challenges: the decision to leave, choosing a destination, adapting to a new environment, finding a role in the new society, and navigating potential identity issues.
Internal Migration: Rural-Urban Movement
During the first half of the 20th century, Spain’s rural areas, particularly in regions like Castile-La Mancha, Galicia, Extremadura, and Andalusia, experienced significant population growth. However, these regions faced socioeconomic difficulties due to low land productivity, large estates, and high unemployment among laborers. The development of transportation and industrial demand for plentiful, cheap labor led to a large-scale migration from these areas to cities and industrial zones. Spain’s improving economy furthered agricultural mechanization, reducing the need for agricultural labor and increasing unemployment, thus driving further migration to cities.
Origins and Scale of Internal Migration
Rural-urban migration affected nearly all of Spain, with considerable migratory flows during the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s. Between 1950 and 1980, an estimated 5.4 million people migrated within Spain. By 2001, eleven Spanish provinces had fewer inhabitants than in 1900, indicating significant emigration, with Teruel, Soria, Lugo, Orense, and Zamora among the most affected.
External Migration: South-North Movement
The south-north migration to Europe began in the 1950s with labor movements, initially from Italy and then Spain, followed by migrants from other countries. Spain’s peak emigration period to Europe occurred between 1950 and 1973. This was driven by Europe’s post-war economic growth, fueled by the Marshall Plan and the Common Market, coupled with Spain’s unfavorable employment situation due to lagging industrialization and insufficient jobs to absorb surplus labor. Emigration to Europe originated from all regions of Spain, particularly Andalusia and Galicia, with France, Germany, and Switzerland as the main destinations.
Consequences of External Migration
For Spain, external migration reduced demographic and socioeconomic pressures caused by high youth unemployment. It also brought significant foreign exchange. However, it also meant uprooting thousands from their origins, often involving difficult living and working conditions in the destination countries. The 1973 economic crisis marked the end of large-scale external migration, as unemployment rose and migrant populations were among the first affected.
Territorial Distribution of Foreign Residents in Catalonia: Metropolitan Area
Foreign residents in Catalonia are heavily concentrated in the metropolitan area, particularly Barcelona, which houses a quarter of the total foreign immigrant population, and surrounding cities like L’Hospitalet de Llobregat and Badalona.
Coastal Areas
Coastal regions, especially Tarragona and Girona, attract foreign residents due to the hospitality sector, with a notable presence of women in these areas.
Mountain Areas
Pyrenean regions with strong tourism, such as Alt Urgell and Cerdanya, also have significant foreign populations.
The Capital Region
The capital region attracts foreigners working in agriculture, livestock, and fisheries, particularly in cities like Vic and Cervera.
Influx of Foreign Immigrants in Catalonia
Recent years have seen a surge in foreign immigration to Catalonia, contributing significantly to the region’s population growth. Many arrive with work permits for jobs like domestic service, elderly care, and restaurant work, often under challenging conditions. Highly qualified individuals may find work in their fields, while those entering irregularly face difficulties and potential repatriation.
Defining a City: Criteria and Characteristics
Several criteria help define a city’s essential characteristics. In Spain, a population of 10,000 inhabitants is a common threshold. Cities are characterized by population concentration and high density, although some residential areas may have lower densities. Diverse economic activities, beyond the primary sector, are another hallmark. Cities also serve as centers of power, creativity, and opportunity, attracting flows of people, goods, capital, and ideas. This makes them important nodes in communication and transportation networks.
Urban Development Plans: Types and Considerations
Urban development plans in Spain have technical, legal, and political dimensions, addressing a city’s growth and evolution. These plans consider expansion patterns, renewal of existing neighborhoods, and necessary procedures for modernization. They can be:
- Conditioning: Acknowledging pre-existing situations.
- Corrective: Addressing deficits and problems.
- Prospective: Forecasting investments and actions for a desirable future.
- Regulatory: Establishing mandatory guidelines.
Key considerations include public transport, private vehicle viability, street and avenue sizing, infrastructure development (metro, airports, railway stations), provision of services and facilities, building regulations, housing standards, and land use.
Partial Plans
Partial plans allow for detailed action in specific areas, addressing neighborhood-level or smaller-scale projects.
Types of City Maps: Irregular Map
Common in older, pre-industrial cities of Roman or Medieval origin, often reflecting the constraints of former walls and natural features like hills or rivers, resulting in a mix of buildings and winding streets without a planned order.
Radiocentric Map
Characterized by streets radiating outwards from a central point, often a significant building or monument, complemented by concentric roads acting as urban belts. Intersections can be complex.
Grid Plan
Popular in the 19th and 20th centuries, featuring perpendicularly intersecting streets, creating a regular grid pattern with square or rectangular blocks. This facilitated movement and control but complicated diagonal travel.
The Garden City Concept
Proposed by Ebenezer Howard in the late 19th century as a solution to industrial city problems, featuring detached housing with gardens and a mix of production and service activities. Intended to be self-sufficient with a limited population, it often evolved into residential suburbs or dormitory towns.
The Functionalist City
Early 20th-century planners like Le Corbusier advocated for high-rise buildings to maximize open green spaces, prioritizing functionality and standardized criteria over aesthetics.
City Maps in Catalonia: Historical Development and Current Patterns
Catalan cities share morphological similarities with other Spanish and European cities. Historically, development centered around a core, often located strategically near water bodies, crossroads, or castles. Suburbs with regular street layouts emerged in the mid-19th century. Many cities continue to expand outwards, creating diverse urban patterns.
Urban Problems in Catalonia: Social Segregation
Recent immigration has led to overcrowding in older districts of Barcelona and other cities, often with irregular housing conditions and high unemployment, contributing to social problems and exclusion.
Residential Mobility
As city centers become more congested, families and young people are moving to more spacious homes in smaller cities outside metropolitan areas, facilitated by car ownership.
Environmental Impact
Urban areas face environmental challenges including noise, traffic congestion, energy consumption, gas emissions, waste management, and water consumption.
The 19th-Century Industrial City: Factories and Urban Growth
The rise of industrial production and factories in the 19th century led to rapid urban growth, particularly in Catalonia (textiles) and Bilbao (steel). The demand for industrial labor fueled rural exodus and urbanization. The introduction of a provincial division and designation of provincial capitals further concentrated political and administrative functions in these cities, altering urban hierarchies.
Urban Environment and the EU: Urban Sprawl and Environmental Concerns
The European Environment Agency (EEA) has highlighted urban sprawl as a major environmental problem, leading to increased transportation needs, energy consumption, pollution, and a larger urban ecological footprint. The EU’s Thematic Strategy for the Urban Environment aims to improve environmental management and urban planning, addressing the challenges posed by urban expansion and discrepancies in member states’ legislation.
Impact of the Dispersed Urban Model: Increased Mobility and Environmental Costs
Urban sprawl has accelerated reliance on private vehicles, increasing individual mobility and the length of daily commutes. This dispersed model is environmentally costly due to higher energy consumption and pollutant emissions. Public transport becomes less efficient and cost-effective, reinforcing reliance on private cars.
20th-Century Urban Growth in Catalonia: The Urban Network and Barcelona’s Dominance
Catalonia’s urban network is dense along the coast, sparser inland, and almost nonexistent in the Pyrenees. Barcelona and its metropolitan area form the dominant urban center, extending to surrounding cities and forming an outer ring. Other urban hierarchies include provincial capitals, regional capitals, and smaller coastal cities.
Connection of Catalan Cities with Spanish and European Urban Areas
Barcelona holds significant importance as a major city, with growing dynamism in other cities like Tarragona, Reus, and Girona along the European Mediterranean axis. Lleida serves as a key urban hub in the Ebro axis, connecting the Mediterranean region with the Basque Country and Madrid. High-speed rail further enhances connectivity between these cities. Catalan cities are increasingly interconnected within a network of municipalities and linked to major urban areas and communication routes in Spain and Europe.