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UNDERSTANDING SPANIARDS

Record numbers of Spaniards living outside of Spain’s borders

Spain has long been a dream destination for foreigners looking to start a new life, but Spaniards are themselves living abroad in record numbers and the vast majority are of working age.

Published: 25 March 2024 12:42 CET
Record numbers of Spaniards living outside of Spain’s borders
Photo: Gregory/Pexels.

The number of Spaniards living abroad continues to rise, reaching a record level of almost three million people in 2023. In total there are 2,908,649 Spaniards living outside Spain, the highest figure since records began. This is according to data collected for the Padrón de Españoles Residentes en el Extranjero (PERE) by Spain’s National Statistics Institute (INE).

Since the database was started in 2009, the number of Spaniards living abroad has increased by a staggering 97 percent, meaning that around 1.5 million Spaniards have left the country in that time.

However, less than a third of Spanish nationals living abroad were actually born in Spain (855,303 people) whereas well over half (1,706,529 people) were born in their current country of residence, the majority of them in Latin America.

READ ALSO: Foreigners account for almost 100% of Spain’s population increase

By continent, 58.7 percent are resident in the Americas, 37.7 percent in Europe, and just 3.6 percent around the rest of the world, although the largest increases in 2023 in relative terms were in Asia (7.9 percent) and Africa (4.8 percent).

In terms of age breakdown, the results are unsurprising. Just 15 percent of Spaniards living abroad are under 16.

62 percent are of working age, that is to say, between the ages of 16-64, and 22 percent are over 65.

By continent, 58.7 percent of those registered were resident in the Americas, 37.7 percent in Europe and 3.6 percent around the rest of the world.

By country, the highest number of Spanish nationals live in Argentina (482,176), France (310,072) and the United States (206,278). However, Mexico is the country that has experienced the greatest increase, with a total of 15,918 Spaniards registered in the last year alone.

This is no coincidence, as Spain’s Democratic Memory Law established the Grandchildren’s Law (Ley de Nietos), which opened up citizenship routes to descendants of victims of the Spanish Civil War and the subsequent dictatorship and potentially grants citizenship hundreds of thousands of people around Latin America.

READ ALSO: Spain’s new ‘grandchildren’ citizenship law: What you need to know

The ‘brain drain’

With rising housing costs and consistently poor job prospects for younger, educated Spaniards, the INE data confirms the long-established ‘brain drain’ affecting the Spanish labour market and economy more broadly. The issue has become significant enough that the Ministry of Social Security recently outlined plans for a strategic plan to try and entice Spaniards living abroad back to the country.

With almost 1.7 million Spaniards of working age abroad, the Ministry plans to try and tempt them back by increasing the budgets for aid given to returnees, and will place a special emphasis on health and educational professionals, as well those working in the social and cultural sectors.

On a regional basis, the parts of Spain where the most people are leaving are Galicia, Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia and the Canary Islands.

A recent study by BBVA and the Valencian Institute of Economic Research (IVIE) estimated the impact of the loss of Spain’s educated workforce, concluding that the roughly 400,000 Spaniards with higher education qualifications who left the country in 2022 represented a loss of wealth equivalent to 1 percent of the total value of the labour force available to the Spanish economy.

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POLITICS

Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

Catalan separatist politicians have taken on kingmaker roles in Spanish politics in recent months, but Catalans themselves increasingly see independence as unlikely. Which Catalans still support independence and which don't?

Published: 10 May 2024 11:39 CEST
Which Catalans want independence from Spain?

Catalan separatists are playing an increasingly crucial role in politics at the national level in Spain, but the vast majority of Catalans themselves see the prospect of independence as increasingly unlikely.

This is according to annual survey data released by the Institute of Political and Social Sciences (ICPS) in Catalonia, which revealed that just 5 percent of Catalans polled believe that an independent Catalonia will ever become a reality. In 2015 that figure was 17 percent.

The survey also confirmed that support for independence (39.5 percent) remains well below support for staying within Spain (52.5 percent). Catalans will go to the polls in regional elections on May 12th in a vote many view as crucial for the stability of the national government.

Catalan pro-independence parties, namely Junts per Cataluyna and Esquerra Republicana de Catalunya, have essentially become kingmakers in Spanish politics following July 2023’s general election result and subsequent amnesty deal offered by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez to cling onto power.

READ ALSO:

Often when the Catalan question is discussed, particularly in the context of national politics, broad strokes statements are made about the people and politics in the region. Catalans are all separatists, some say. Some even say they are terrorists, or that only far-left radicals want independence.

But who really still wants independence? What are the demographics behind Catalan separatism, and what does it tell us about the future of the movement?

Age breakdown

A study by the Generalitat revealed that younger voters, between 16- 42, generally show less enthusiasm for independence than older voters. Young people are more likely to show preference for the current model (of Catalonia as a region within Spain) rather than full independence, according to a survey by the Catalan Centre for Opinion Studies (CEO) cited by El País.

CEO polling groups respondents by age, the ‘silent generation’ (over 78); ‘baby boomers’ (between 59 and 77); ‘generation X’ (between 43 and 58); ‘millennials’ (between 27 and 42) and ‘generation Z’ (between 16 and 26).

The results were stark. When asked “what should be the relationship between Catalonia and Spain” the preference for independence only exceeded 30 percent among baby boomers (34 percent) and generation X (32 percent). But even within these age groups, the most pro-independence, a fully-independent Catalonia barely convinced more than a quarter to a third of respondents.

Among younger people, however, regional autonomy was the preferred option for millennials (28 percent) and generation Z (29 percent), ahead of an independent Catalonia, which appealed to 26 percent and 23 percent respectively. Interestingly, in this sense young people are closer to their grandparents’ views than to their parents’ generation on the question of independence. Among the silent generation, regional autonomy within Spain had 33 percent support, and 27 percent supported an independent Catalonia.

A demonstrator waves a half-Spanish and half-Senyera flag during a protest by far-right party Vox against the government in Barcelona in 2020. (Photo by Pau Barrena / AFP)

Young men

Furthermore, delving further into the graphics, it becomes clear that young men are some of the least likely people to support Catalan independence. A survey published by Òmnium points to “a marked conservative movement and a move away from the fundamental values of sovereignty among the country’s youth” more generally but specifically among young men.

Young men, the study demonstrates, are the most ‘espanyolistas’ in the region, in other words, the least favourable towards Catalan independence and most likely to be pro-centralisation and Spanish. They are also the ones who view using the Catalan language as a lesser priority. However, this isn’t an isolated policy issue, and young men in the region are also more likely to be sceptical about climate change, the least in favour of paying taxes, the least feminist, and those who perceive the threat of the extreme right as the least relevant.

The study termed this the ‘derechización‘ (what we might call the ‘right-wingisation’ in English) of young men, a trend across the rest of the country and the world in recent years.

Class and income

Income and social class also play a role in pro-separatist politics, and the data suggests that separatism is more popular among people self-describing as ‘comfortably off’.

According to data from the CEO cited by El País in 2017, the real flashpoint of separatist politics in Catalonia, around a third (32 percent) of Catalans earning less than €900 were in favour of independence. However, over half (53 percent) of respondents earning €1,800 or more per month were pro-independence, while 54 percent of the wealthy (monthly income of €4,000 or more per month) wanted to see an independent Catalonia.

This also ties into educational level and class. Data compiled by the London School of Economics shows that independence is most popular among the highly educated (secondary and university levels), something that makes higher incomes levels more attainable and upward social mobility more likely.

Catalan origins

Interestingly, it seems that Catalans born outside Catalonia are more likely to be on lower incomes and therefore less likely to hold pro-separatist views. There also seems to be evidence that having a multi-generational Catalan background makes you more likely to be pro-independence.

As El País states, “even more glaring is the relationship between background and pro-independence sentiment. Among third generation Catalans – those with both parents and all four grandparents born in Catalonia – support for independence rises to 75 percent.”

“But this figure drops drastically when it comes to families with more varied backgrounds. Support for independence stands at 49 percent among those with one parent from outside the region and drops to 29 percent among children of immigrants.”

Geography

Geography also plays a role. As these municipality map breakdowns by RTVE show, if the population living in each area is taken into account, as in the second map, you can see that in the largest municipalities, such as Barcelona and its surrounding metropolitan area, the non-nationalist bloc holds the greatest electoral weight.

The maps are stark, but population even things even out: in municipalities where there was a nationalist or pro-independence majority in 2021, found largely in the country and smaller towns, slightly over 3 million Catalans live; but in the big cities, where people are more likely to be sceptical, that figure is almost 5 million.

As the Royal Elcano Institute put it in its analysis of the post-2017 political chaos, Catalan independence bucks the traditional rural/urban split: “While Scottish independence is viewed more favourably in big cities, in Catalonia the territorial divide is the reverse: rural areas register a majority in favour of independence, with urban areas having a majority against.”

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