External migrations in the recent evolution of the population in spain

Abstract

This article seeks to place the evolution of external migration in the wider frame of the demographic dynamics of the Spanish population. Logical concern for the most updated data needs to be balanced with an evaluation of the reliability of the data provided by different statistical series. So, the first section of this article deals precisely with this evaluation. The aim of sections 2 and 3 is to offer information on the demographic dynamics, as well as the age pyramids of Spain and of Europe, in order to place external migration in this context. Section 4 warns against reductionism and against undue extrapolation in the present use of the term «immigrant». Then, section 5 deals firstly with data on the foreign population of specific nationalities, as registered in the last population census (year 2001) compared with the population registered as foreign residents by the Police in the same year, and in the following years until the end of 2004; secondly, it places these data in different series of external immigration data extended from the last decades.

 Findings come together from different series of data to document strong increases of the total population and particularly of the foreign population in Spain in the few years already past of the XXI century. At the same time, care is needed when dealing with specific figures of both the total population of Spain and, particularly, the total foreign population; a wide difference between the data coming from different sources appears. Beyond the available data used when this article has been elaborated, it is highly foreseeable that the year 2005 will end with big increases in the registered data, given the process of normalization of foreign workers that is taking place in Spain in the current year.

 The last section offers three other kind of data: figures of births from foreign parents, foreign students, and registered foreign workers in the Social Security System, each of which has multiplied its figures in the recent past years. They are selected as significant indicators of the weight that the population derived from foreign origins has already in the whole of the Spanish population. As a conclusive consideration: citizens’ perceptions need to accomodate to this reality otherwise they will be operating on premises which are already obsolete.