Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0
Author-Name: Concepción Martínez Alcalá
Author-Name: Encarnación Moral Pajares
Title:  Importancia desigual de la población extranjera en las provincias españolas: Factores determinantes
Abstract: <h2>Resumen</h2>
España es una de las economías del mundo que registran una mayor
densidad inmigratoria. La población con nacionalidad extranjera y residente en
el país ha mantenido una elevada tasa de crecimiento durante la década 2000,
representando en 2011 más del 12 por cien del total. Sin embargo, este
colectivo no se reparte de forma homogénea en el territorio nacional y se
advierten importantes diferencias en la proporción de extranjeros que registran
las distintas provincias españolas. El objetivo de este trabajo es investigar,
de acuerdo con los argumentos teóricos analizados y utilizando la técnica
estadística de datos de panel, los factores económicos y extraeconómicos que
han condicionado esta situación.
<h2>Abstract</h2>
According to INE, the Spanish statistics
office, at the beginning of the year 2000 there were 923,879 foreign nationals
living in Spain, whobarely accounted for 2.2% of the total population, when in
nearby countries such as France, Ireland, Germany, Luxembourg and Austria this
population group exceeded 10%.Eleven years later, Spain had 5,751,487 foreign
citizens – an aggregate growth of over 500%with a mean annual cumulative change
of 18% – who constituted the principle component of the total number of persons
born abroad residing in this country.According to the OECD (2009), the
countrywith the greatest rise worldwide in the proportion of foreigners relative
to the total population during the first decade of the 21<sup>st</sup> century
was Spain, at over 12%.During the early 2010s their proportion remained
practically constant,largely because of aslowdown in thegrowth of this population
group,a situation thatLacuesta&amp; Puente (2010) attributed to the downturn in
economic activity in Spainand its adverse effects on the labour market.
&nbsp;
However, these figures do not signify that
foreigners are evenly distributed among the provinces of Spain, which show
major differences in migration density.In 2011, foreigners accounted for over
20% of the total population in four provinces (Alicante, Almería, Balearic
Islands and Girona).In contrast, the provinces of Asturias, Badajoz, Caceres,
Cadiz, Cordoba, Corunna, Jaen, Lugo, Palencia, Pontevedra, Seville and Zamorahad
low percentages of immigrants, all below 5%.The aim of this research was to examine
the factors that led to disparities in migration density between the Spanish
provinces during the first decade of the 21<sup>st</sup> century, a period when
the weight of the registered foreign population increased spectacularly, partly
due to immigrant regularisations (Simón, Lázaro&amp;Sánchez, 2009).Above all,
it attempts to identify the factors that may have influenced the unequal
prominence of foreigners within the total population of each province.In other
words, it tries to find out why foreigners constitute over 12% of the
population of certain provinces, which receive both inter- and intra-national
flows of foreign populations, given that the distribution of Spanish nationals
remained practically constant over the period under study.
&nbsp;
The task of measuring international migration
faces numerous obstacles related to the definition of ‘immigrant’, the
measurement method employed, statistical coordination, irregular immigration,
etc. (Duque, 2011).As this study focuses on Spain, it was considered
appropriate to use the foreign population figures provided by INE, specifically
those furnished by the municipal registers of inhabitants (padrón).These administrative registers listing the inhabitants of
the municipality are managed by the autonomous regions, which bearthe legal
responsibility for statistics in their area, so coordination and planning of
the statistical output of the regional offices is ensured and the problem of
incoherence and incompatibility between the data is eliminated.
&nbsp;
Based on the foregoing, this research studies
the pull factors that influence the arrival of foreign citizens in the
different provinces of Spain and lead to heterogeneous migration densitiesin
the different regions of the national economy.The main innovation in this study
is that together with variables examined in previous studies, such as per
capita income, unemployment rates and the stock of foreigners already residing
in the place of destination, it also includes the features of the productive
fabric of the provinces where they settle.However, it does not examine some
classic variables used in other studies of immigrants arriving in Spain, such
as geographical proximity, cultural affinity or language, regularisations or
applications for visas, the existence or otherwise of a welfare state, or
political stability (Casado, Molina &amp;Oyarzun, 2003; Cebrián, 2009), as the
objectof study is not why foreigners come to Spain but the unequal prominence
of the foreign population group in the 50 provinces of this country, which
influences the inhabitants’ perceptions of thereality.Above all, this study
investigates the gravitational effect of the aspects of the economy of the host
province that are considered most relevant in the light of the literature
reviewed.
&nbsp;
Other studies have explored the importance of
migratory flows in particular provinces or districts of Spain (Sandell, 2009;
Simón, Lázaro&amp; Sánchez, 2009 and 2010; Rodríguez, 2010).However, they have
not analysed the variables that lead to an uneven distribution of foreigners
between provinces, causing important differences in the pressure of this
aggregate on the total population of each.
&nbsp;
Based on the findings of this study and
estimating a panel data model with both spatial and temporalfixed effects, it
was found that between the years 2000 and 2011 the migration density of Spanish
provinces was influenced by the type of production activity carried out in the
province, its per capita GDP and the multiplication of immigrants in a network,
as argued by Marcu and Gómez (2010). The unemployment rate and percentage of
production activity were not significant.Indeed, it is the provincial economies
where structural changeshave caused a shift towards the service sector that have
a relatively greater percentage of foreigners.In these provinces, conditions in
the production system have allowed the existence of a dual labour market which
attracts foreigners who hope to find work.They mainly take jobs that are in
little demand among the Spanish population, so do not affect the province’s
relative unemployment rate.Also, as the immigrant population living in the area
rises there is a greater probability of this group’s increasing its relative
weight, since the rate of change in thelocalpopulation is low and in some cases
even negative.
&nbsp;
The differences in production specialisation in
the 50 provinces of Spain are very important for explaining their disparate
migration densities.Also, it could be argued from thesefindings that the
presence of foreigners encourages the arrival of more foreigners.The way the
network effect works in the migration project, influenced by the living
conditions of the society of origin, explains how the phenomenon becomes
self-sustaining.
&nbsp;
This analysis also suggests an interpretation
ofwhythe decline in economic activity and increased unemployment in the
provinces of Spain from 2008 onwards have not led to a major reduction in the proportional
weight of the immigrant population.
&nbsp;
This paper is organised into four sections.The
introductory first section is followed by the theoretical arguments on which
this research is based and the hypotheses to be tested.Section 3 describes the
estimated empirical model and the results of the analysis.The last section
presents the main conclusions.
Classification-JEL: R1
Keywords: Población extranejra, Foreign population, Determinantes económicos, Economics determinants, Estructura productiva, Productive structure, Provincias, Province, España, Spain
Pages: 109-130
Volume: 2
Year: 2015
File-URL: http://www.revistaestudiosregionales.com/documentos/articulos/pdf-articulo-2471.pdf
File-Format: Application/pdf
Handle: RePEc:rer:articu:v:2:y:2015:p:109-130