Labour mobility within the EU - The impact of enlargement and the functioning of the transitional arrangements FINAL REPORT - COUNTRY CASE STUDIES

Abstract

The migration phenomenon in Spain has attracted a lot of attention over the last ten years. Since the late 1990s the number of migrants in Spain increased dramatically. As a result of the economic crisis, however, employment prospects of immigrants in the Spanish labour market have worsened significantly with decreases in employment particularly amongst the foreign-born population. Migrants from Bulgaria and Romania have suffered the consequences of the economic crisis to a larger extent, which has been widely attributed to the adverse developments in the construction sector. The rise in unemployment rates during 2008 and 2009 amongst migrants, however, was not due only to the employees losing their jobs, but also reflected the increase in the numbers of migrants participating in the workforce. Resident permits statistics show that the number of Romanian and Bulgarian continued to increase during the recession years, although to a lesser extent than it had done previously. However, in the short-run our understanding of the real magnitude of the inflows and outflows of migrants remains limited. A key issue is the distinction between regularisation of existing migrants from the measuring of new waves of migrants. Recent data show that net inflows of foreign-born migrants coming from abroad have decreased substantially since 2007, affecting the Romanian population in particular.