The context of non-EU foreigners in Spain reveals the two faces of immigration. On the one hand, Social Security has more foreign contributors than ever before. Are more than 2.8 million people employed outside Spanish bordersMost of them work in the service sector or in the agricultural sector. They represent one in four workers in the hotel industry (29%) and the countryside (24.8%). However, the increase in employment created after the pandemic by this group contrasts with the situation of irregular arrivals, one of the major problems facing the government of Pedro Sánchez, and which has been exacerbated in recent months.
The X-ray of migratory flows in Spain reveals the dynamism that foreigners offer to the Spanish labor market: 80% of non-nationals cross the borders at working age, most of them young peopleand the activity rate is higher than that of residents already born in Spain. Without going any further, the increase in employment after the pandemic has a lot to do with this group, which in 2023 represented 2.3 points of the increase in employment.
Membership is at its highest, sometimes exceeding 2.9 million foreign members registered with Social Security during the third week of July. The proportion of foreign workers in relation to the total number of members is as high as it has been in at least the last thirteen years: they represent almost 14% of the total, while in terms of population they are 13.4% according to the National Institute of Statistics (INE) until 2023.
“Immigration plays a fundamental role in cushioning the impact of demographic dynamics, particularly the decline in the birth rate and the aging of the population, by increasing and rejuvenating the working population,” reported the CaixaBank Research service in a recent report. .of banking studies.
In total, 84% of foreign subsidiaries are classified as employees of the General Scheme, with 2,429,100 workers, in a proportion similar to that of the group of workers which includes nationals and foreigners.
Workers from other countries represent more than 20% of the total membership in sectors such as the activities of extraterritorial organizations and bodies (28.7%), they are waiters in the hotel industry (29%), day laborers in agriculture, livestock, forestry and fishing (24.2%) and construction workers (20.8%). They also have a special dedication to tasks and home care, since they represent 45% of the Special Reception System, while in the Special Agrarian System, 33.7% of workers are foreigners.
In the creation of jobs last year, four sectors of activity stand out where the employment of foreigners is experiencing double-digit growth, at least 10%: Supply of electric energy, gas, steam and air conditioning, which is growing by 11.2%.; Health activities and central services (10.7%), administrative activities and auxiliary services (10.7%) and transport and storage (10.4%). Other sectors are also experiencing particular growth, such as financial and insurance activities (9.9%), construction (9.6%), hotels (9.5%), artistic activities (9.3%) and trade (9.2%).
Although Traditionally, this group is in the majority in low-skilled positions and constitutes a resource for filling vacant positions.Social Security also shares a “very notable annual growth” in high value-added activities where notable growth is observed in sectors such as information and communication, which increases by 7.2% and in professional, scientific and technical activities, with an increase last year of 6%.
Foreigners also play “alone”. The Independent Workers’ Scheme counted 457,438 contributors of other nationalities this summer, which represents more than 13.5% of the total number of independent workers. Last year, foreign subsidiaries covered by this scheme increased by 7.6%.
The region of Catalonia leads the number of foreign workers in Spain with 24.06%, while Madrid hosts 20.32% of non-national workers. However, it is in the northern plateau and in the northwest of the peninsula where foreigners affiliated to social security increased the most last year: Asturias (14.5% more in one year), Galicia (12.7% more), Castilla y León (12.6%) and Cantabria (10.8%) are the only regions where this group has experienced double-digit growth. Ceuta and Melilla, both with negative balances.
Which contributors are the most “profitable”?
In the midst of the debate on immigration policy and with the possibility of attracting qualified labor to improve the Spanish labor market, the contributions of people who come to work in our country can be a scale with which to measure which nationalities are most profitable to feed Spain in terms of employment, productivity or social contributions, always taking into account the needs of the labor market.
With contribution bases up to 30% higher than the average or 60% more than the rest of foreigners, Germans and French people stand out from the rest of non-national workers. Germany has more than 30,700 contributors in Spain, with an average contribution base of almost 2,600 euros per month. The French are almost 43,400 contributors who contribute more than 2,800 euros per month. The 174 Maltese working in Spain take the gold, with a contribution of almost 3,000 euros per month.
The average contribution base of the 16.3 million contributors in the private sector, employees or self-employed, is approximately 2,200 euros. Foreigners are one level below and do not reach 1,750 euros per month. Social Security has nearly 1.9 million contributors excluding the special household and agricultural regime.
On the other hand, Spain has 52,000 workers of Chinese nationality working as employees in Spain. The Chinese have the lowest contribution bases among all foreigners, with 1,419 euros per month. The linguistic link attracts more than 410,000 South Americans (especially Venezuelans and Colombians) work in Spain. All of them, except Argentines, have contribution bases lower than the average of all foreigners working in Spain.
The beginning of the century also attracted a large number of workers from the East, especially those from Romania (currently 227,000 workers) and Bulgaria (41,000), especially for agricultural occupations. Both nationalities have contribution bases close to 1,700 euros per month.
