"New Emigration" from Spain after the Economic Crisis: A Tale of Continuity with the Crossover of Migratory Cycles

The aim of the paper is to analyse emigration from Spain, following the 2008 economic crisis. It analyses the ‘new emigration’ in relation to previous migratory cycles and specifically: a) Spanish emigration to Europe during the 1960s-1970s; b) immigration to Spain from the 1980s onwards. We posit that rather than a ‘new’ phenomenon, the mobilities that emerged from Spain following the crisis must be seen from the perspective of the reactivation of transnational fields that have been built up between Spain and a number of European and Latin American countries over the course of the intense history of mobilities within the framework of various migratory cycles.

The methodology includes the analysis of the principal statistical sources available in Spain to measure emigration flows (Migration Statistics and the Residential Variation Survey-Spanish National Institute of Statistics, INE). The intention is to shed light on this crossover of mobility and migratory cycles, identifying the typology of these ‘new emigrants’. This will reveal the link between ‘native emigrant’ migratory flows and the Spanish migration cycles of the 1960s and 1970s. Our study also considers the way in which the new mobilities are related to the return of the actors of immigration cycle to their countries of origin. It also analyses re-emigration from the perspective of the complex links and their articulation with various transnational fields.

Finally, based on the fieldwork conducted with 25 Spaniards that emigrated to Paris following the economic crisis in 2008, the article highlights the connections between this new form of emigration with the traditional Spanish emigration to France that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. It reveals the reactivation of a number of labour niches that were traditional sources of employment for Spanish emigrants.