Current Internal Migration in Spain: Causes and Consequences

Current Internal Migration Dynamics

Since 1975, the migratory system has created new urban municipalities, where the place of origin was the greatest change in size. The destination has slowed down significantly, with certain communities acting as priority destinations, particularly along the Mediterranean coast and the Ebro Valley. Internal migration within the province has intensified.

At the municipal level, the ability of industrialized cities to attract people has declined. The profile of emigrants and the causes of migrations have changed:

Types of Internal Migration

Internal migrations are categorized into several distinct types based on their underlying motivations and demographic characteristics:

• a) Residential Migrations: Intraurban residential migrations respond to the centrifugal effect of the city and its peripheral crowns. These movements mainly affect young people who are looking for cheaper properties.
• b) Labor Migrations: Motivated by employment, these movements involve adult and young workers. There is a shift from less qualified rural or industrialized cities with lower economic dynamism to centers with greater economic dynamism and urban nuclei in the tertiary service sector.
• c) Return Migrations: These involve the return of the rural population to their rural towns of origin. Older emigrants decide to return upon retirement, leaving urban areas to return to rural ones and changing their lifestyle and work.
• d) Habitual Population Movements: These are daily displacements for work and leisure. Labor pendular movements occur between the place of residence and the workplace, while leisure movements are triggered by weekends and tourism in search of a better quality of life.

Consequences of Internal Migrations

Traditional Internal Migrations

Traditional internal migrations had significant repercussions on several fronts:

• Demographic Plane: The distribution of the population became unbalanced. There was a depopulation of the interior and a massive increase in density in the periphery, which deeply impacted the structure by sex and age.
• Economic Terms: Rural areas experienced an increase in the aging of the population, a loss of gender and generation resources, and a decrease in productivity due to the departure of young and trained people. Conversely, cities experienced diseconomies of congestion, including problems with urban land and social assimilation issues where newcomers struggled to integrate into society.
• Environmental Aspect: In areas of origin, emigrants abandoned fields, leading to the deterioration of ecosystems. Meanwhile, traditional cities created problems with pollution.

Current Internal Migration

Recent internal migration patterns bring new challenges and structural shifts:

• Residential Migration: Causes the aging of populations in central urban residential areas and increases population density in receiving peripheries.
• Labor Migration: Causes demographic and economic imbalances across provinces.
• Rural Return Migration: Causes the aging of the population in receiving rural areas.
• Circulatory Movements: Cause traffic and circulation problems in the approaches and access points to major cities.