Residential Mobility in the Metropolitan Dispersion of the Immigrant Population in Spain, 2001-2022.

The intense growth of international immigration in the case of Spain, from barely 1.4 million and 3.6% of the population to over 8.2 million and 17.1% in only two decades, has led to important changes in the territorial settlement patterns of the different immigrant groups. From an initial insertion where the large urban centres such as Madrid, Barcelona or Valencia have acted as a gateway to Spain, to a continuous growth of the immigrant population in the metropolitan peripheries. This process has taken place with high intensity, even exceeding in some municipalities on the periphery the immigrant population of the large central cities. In addition to direct arrivals from abroad, a large part of this growth has taken place via residential mobility, in a process of suburbanisation that does not necessarily coincide in its characteristics with that experienced by the autochthonous population. In the case of Spain, this mobility has been collected annually by the Residential Variation Statistics, and by the recent Statistics on Migrations and Changes of Residence. This communication analyses these patterns for the eight largest metropolitan areas in Spain and for the main immigrant groups, focusing on: 1) the evolution of the flows in relation to the different economic periods (2000-2008; 2019-2014; 2014-2019; 2020 and 2021-2022); 2) the impact of the flows on the concentration and dispersion of the different groups in the territory; and 3) the disruptive effect of Covid-19, especially on movements towards the densest areas and for Asians.