The foreign population in Spain has increased from around 600,000 people (1.5% of the total population) in 1998 to more than 5.5 million in 2022 (11.7%), but the alarmism associated with this phenomenon is “largely unjustified”. This is the conclusion of an article devoted to immigration published this Wednesday by the Foundation for Applied Economic Studies (Fedea) in which it emphasizes that “it does not significantly affect employment opportunities and wages of Spanish workers” and that, on the contrary. , it helps to mitigate the effects of the aging population that the country is experiencing.
Raquel Carrasco, professor at the Carlos III University of Madrid and author of the article, says that “despite the increase in media visibility and public debate, the analysis suggests that many of the concerns about the impact of the Immigration impacts on employment, wages and public services are influenced by misperceptions and misinformation. What is it based on?
To begin with, existing empirical data indicates that immigrants from non-EU countries earn around 30% less than Spanish workers, a wage gap that is explained in 94% of cases by differences in income. age, education, type of contract and sector of employment: “Only 6% remain unexplained and are therefore potentially attributable to discrimination,” explains Carrasco.
Furthermore, the study reveals that there is initially a significant employment gap between immigrants and Spaniards, of 15 points for men and 4 points for women. In this case, Fedea specifies that this gap tends to reduce over time, certain groups, such as Latin American women, even exceeding native employment rates after five years.
In this sense, the article highlights that “empirical evidence suggests that immigration does not have significant negative effects on employment opportunities or on the wages of native workers in Spain and much of the Europe. […] The general consensus is that immigration can coexist with a healthy labor market, bringing benefits to the local economy. However, it is essential to continue studying the effects in the long term and in specific contexts. »
What types of jobs do immigrants hold? According to the study, arrivals from third countries are particularly concentrated in jobs poorly qualified and poorly paid. However, some groups, notably those in Eastern Europe and Latin America, show upward mobility over time.
The analysis also confirms that immigrants tend to have shorter periods of unemployment than native Spaniards, “perhaps due to greater economic pressure to find work quickly.” They are initially less likely to receive unemployment benefits, but this difference diminishes over time.
Nor does the increase in immigration absorbed by Spain translate into a substantial increase in the overall crime rate, even though the conviction rate of immigrants is higher than that of Spaniards. “This difference is fundamentally explained by demographic and socio-economic factors, since a significant part of the immigrant population is made up of young men with low level of educationa demographic that tends to have higher crime rates regardless of nationality,” says Carrasco.
With this scenario and “in light of the empirical evidence, the alarmism associated with immigration appears largely unjustified.” Furthermore, the article states that “immigration could potentially help alleviate the challenges posed by the aging of the Spanish population, contributing to the sustainability of the pension system and boosting economic growth.”
However, the author indicates that for immigration to have a lasting positive impact, there must be “adequate integration policies that allow immigrants to access quality jobs” and this would be achieved through integration immigrants through access to education, health care and cultural inclusion policies; the management and selection of migration flows, potentially based on skills and labor market needs, and coordination at European level to effectively manage migration flows and avoid inequalities in the distribution of responsibilities between Member States.
