Immigration and Economic Crisis: An Analysis of the Impact in Spain, 2007–2013

Abstract

This article illustrates the phenomenon of migration as a key for analyzing neoliberal as well as Keynesian logic. The European socio-economic frame of integration is defined as a four-fold complex consisting of an employment regime (types of labor markets), forms of consumption, a system of social protection, and a type of socio-political integration. It is shown that the articulation of these four levels produces virtuoso or perverse cycles of social integration. Using official data, it can be seen that the Spanish labor market has suffered structural changes since the post-2007 economic crisis, including alteration in work activities, occupations and the unemployment level of the labor force; deterioration for specific groups such as young people and immigrants; and increased risk of poverty. With the deepening of the crisis, immigrants have found themselves trapped in Spain’s network of unemployment, temporary employment, lack of stable employment prospects, irregular economics, increased risk of poverty, and a perverse cycle of exclusion that calls into question not only the effectiveness of European neoliberal policies but the entire European social model.