Urban Spread Effects and Rural Change in City Hinterlands: The Case of Two Andalusian Cities

Abstract

During the 1960s huge internal population movements took place across Spain, with about 4.5 million people changing places of residence (Romero and Albertos, 1993). The four Spanish regions that attracted the majority of these migrants were Madrid, Catalonia, Valencia and the Basque Country. The remaining Spanish regions saw population decline, which was especially intensive in Extremadura, Castilla-Le6n, Castilla-La Mancha and Andalusia. From the second half of the 1980s, a noteworthy slowing in long distance migration occurred, in favour of intra-provincial movements. In parallel with this, even though a decline in the agrarian population that intensified in the 1960s persisted, there was a cessation in rural depopulation, which had characterized the 1960s and 1970s. As Garcia Sanz (1994, 1997) has demonstrated, the decline in the agrarian workforce and change in the rural population were two independent processes in Spain. Hence, similar to other advanced economies, an inversion of previous migration trends had started by the second half of the 1980s, when many more people began to view rural areas as attractive places to live or spend their free time (e.g. Champion, 1989).