The attraction of foreign-born immigrants to rural areas in developed countries has aroused growing interest in recent years. The central issue in this study is the demographic impact of immigration in rural Spain, focusing on depopulated areas. The economic and demographic consequences of depopulation have become major concerns, and the arrival of international migrants has come to be seen as a possible solution. The aim of this study is to add to a literature in which qualitative research and local or regional perspectives predominate. The present research draws on quantitative findings for a significant part of Spain. The evidence in this study is principally based on population figures for the last years of the 20th century, a period of low immigration to Spain, and the early years of the 21st century, when the inflow of foreign migrants gathered intensity. We also explore the early consequences of the present economic crisis, which began in 2008. The analysis is based on estimates of native and foreign-born population growth for a range of territorial aggregations. Counterfactual techniques are also used. The results show that the arrival of immigrants has so far contributed substantially to reducing and even halting or reversing depopulation. A further series of analyses concentrates on the potential of rural areas to retain immigrants in the long run. The study also recommends a comprehensive policy approach in this regard. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Reducing Depopulation in Rural Spain: The Impact of Immigration

Europe witnessed massive migration away from rural areas throughout the 20th century. Spain was no exception to the rule, albeit with differences in timing and pace, and the population in Cantabria constitutes a paradigmatic case. Here, the rural exodus began early – before the mid-20th century – in some mountainous districts, but reached a peak in the 1960s and continued throughout the following decades. Since the 1990s, population levels in rural municipalities have fallen at a slower rate, while the population of the region as a whole has increased slightly. Disturbingly, the rural population has continued to decline in the early 21ˢᵗ century, in an overall context of almost zero population growth. The demographic trends analyzed here are not only different in time, but also in space. With the partial exception of regional capitals and their neighbouring communities, municipalities in mountain districts have witnessed such a substantial decline in their populations that they have experienced a genuine process of depopulation. This case does not explain the all-similar cases in rural Europe as a whole, but it can help in interpreting other comparable processes in different regions of southern Europe where depopulation reached its maximum in the second half of the 20th century and still continues today.

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Depopulation Processes in European Rural Areas: A Case Study of Cantabria (Spain)

International migration processes are of increasing importance to changing ruralities in high-income countries. They offer the chance to connect rural areas to the world through direct links of transnational networks, and they have the potential for dynamic change. Through migration, important fields of social, economic and institutional transnational networks directly intersect with local areas. Accordingly, not only the demographic structure but also qualitative aspects of the countryside can be influenced by international migration. This chapter investigates the transnational effects of international migration on local labour markets in rural Sweden, analysing the transnational networks and transnational potential of international migrants in the labour market, based on interviews with three different groups of actors: local authorities, local firms and migrant entrepreneurs. Accordingly, the chapter analyses rural areas as connected by transnational linkages of international labour, which ties rural areas to other international localities in a process of global upscaling of rural space.

When the World Goes Rural : Transnational Potentials of International Migration in Rural Swedish Labour Markets

This chapter analyses the role of rural areas in processes of international immigration in Spain. It focuses on the interrelations between geographical and social (occupational) mobility of migrants to these areas. The analysis is based on data from the National Immigrant Survey in 2007, the first to offer representative information at the national level on the residential and occupational trajectories of foreign residents in Spain. Foreign residents in rural areas have different kinds of mobility and these types of mobility convert some foreigners into “new neighbours” and others into “immigrants.” The ethnic stratification of the labour market which operates with respect to immigrants also forms part of the social production of mobilities. The data support the findings of previous studies in that they show the subsidiary role of agriculture and rural areas in the employment and residential strategies of immigrants. In addition to local employment opportunities, family migration patterns also seem to play an important role in these new residents settling in rural areas.

Foreigners, Neighbours, Immigrants: Translocal Mobilities in Rural Areas in Spain

http://digital.csic.es/bitstream/10261/67281/1/anadon.pdf

Exurban sprawl increases the extinction probability of a threatened tortoise due to pet collections

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Luis Camarero (Coord.), Fátima Cruz, Manuel González, Julio A. Del Pino, Jesús Oliva, Rosario Sampedro. La población rural de España. De los desequilibrios a la sostenibilidad social. Fundación "La Caixa", 2009

Beatriz Bonete Fernández

Papers

Luis Camarero (Coord.), Fátima Cruz, Manuel González, Julio A. Del Pino, Jesús Oliva, Rosario Sampedro. La población rural de España. De los desequilibrios a la sostenibilidad social. Fundación "La Caixa", 2009