Immigrants in Spain - Their Role in the Economy and the Effects of the Crisis

Abstract

In the last decade Spain definitely became a country of immigrants. This article describes the characteristics and economic role of immigration, the official policy towards the phenomenon and the effects of the financial and economic crisis of the last two years. The five million immigrants had important effect on the Spanish demography, employment and education system. Foreigners found vacant jobs first of all in the construction industry and agriculture. To the end of 2007 however, the construction boom ended and Spain sank into a deep recession. Unemployment rate jumped to 20 percent to the spring of 2010 leaving mass of immigrants without jobs. Tolerance of the Spanish people towards immigrants seems to decrease and foreigners has become another problem for the – otherwise overloaded government.

Keywords

• immigrants
• Spain
• crisis
• employment
• immigration policy