The number of foreign workers has risen in Spain in the last 12 months in 211,000 people, 8.03%, but that growth reaches 12.36% in the so -called empty Spain and reaches up to 14.68% in the four communities of the peninsular northwest.
According to the data that the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations has just publishedthe number of workers from other countries has risen between January 2024 and January this year by 17.95% in Asturias, 14.73% in Galicia, 13.94% in Castilla y León and a 13.78 % in Cantabria.
Andalusia appear behind (11.65%), the Valencian Community (10.08%), Extremadura (8.29%) and, already below average, Castilla-La Mancha (7.85%), Canary Islands (7.27% ), Aragon (7.10%), Madrid (6.89%) and Balearic Islands (6.70%).
Far from the northwest, in Navarra has grown 5.21%, In Catalonia, 5.79%, in La Rioja, 5.90%, in Murcia 6.04%and in the Basque Country 6.08%.
In total, In Spain there are currently working 2.84 million people born in other countrieswhich represents 13.8 % of the total employed, who are six tenths more than a year ago, according to inclusion data.
The arrival of foreign population is behind the fact that Spain has exceeded 49 million inhabitants -49.077.984 to January 1, 2025, according to continuous population statistics published this week by the National Statistics Institute (INE)-, with 9,379,972 people born abroad residents in the country, of which about 2 , 6 million have acquired nationality.
In Jaén it has risen 57%
In response to the data by provinces, two Andalusians also appear in the top two also with Depopulation problems: First of all Jaén, where foreign workers have shot 57.24%in a year, already Córdoba, with an increase of 21.56%.
Just behind them are a dozen provinces of the northwest quadrant of the peninsula: Zamora (20.96%), Asturias (17.95%), Valladolid (17.45%), A Coruña (17.06%), León (16.71%), Palencia (16.50%), Ourense (15.82%), Lugo (14.94%), Cantabria (13.78%) and Salamanca (13.37%).
Nails remarkably higher figures to those of provinces such as Gipuzkoa, where in January this year there were only 3.45% more foreigners working, or Tarragona, with 3.52% more.
Jaén and Córdoba are two of the 23 provinces included at work “A multidisciplinary study of empty Spain: retrospective and prospective“, of the Alternative Foundation, together with Albacete, Ávila, Badajoz, Burgos, Cáceres, Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Huesca, La Rioja, León, Lugo, Ourense, Palencia, Salamanca, Segovia, Soria, Teruel, Valladolid, Zamora and Zaragoza.
In these 23 provinces, the foreign population with work has risen 12.36% in one year, while in the another 27 the increase has been 7.37%, approximately five points less.
Of course, the territories that attract more workers From other countries, although they do not grow as much as the Peninsular Northwest, they are the ones that generate the most employment: Catalonia (with 660,251 foreign occupies), Madrid (598.205), Andalusia (358,525) and the Valencian Community (333.248).
60% more in Galicia and Asturias in four years
In any case, the Increase of foreigners in less populated areas Or directly in the process of loss of population as the Peninsular Northwest is generally a tendency that has been registered for years, as data of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations are verified.
In the last four years -by comparing the figures published now with those of January 2021 -, the number of workers from other countries has increased a 39.05% throughout Spainbut the increase has reached 68.75% in Galicia, at 64.21% in Asturias, 53.52% in Castilla y León and 52.19% in Cantabria.
They are also above the Canary Islands (50.90%), the Valencian Community (46.21%), Extremadura (45.70%), Basque Country (41.92%) and Madrid (40.18%) and something below the Balearic Islands (38,79 %), Andalusia (35.77%), Castilla-La Mancha (35.28%) and Catalonia (35.01%).
Where less have increased Foreign workers in the last four years have been in Murcia (17.36%), La Rioja (28.40%), Navarra (32.20%) and Aragon (34.19%).
Housing and work, reasons to come
The reasons why the number of foreign workers grow more in Spain and specifically in the northwest are complex and it is not easy to find recent studies that have addressed this phenomenon, but the process has already led to initiatives that are taking advantage of it to revitalize rural environmentsattract working population and generate economic fabric.
Ramón Pradera, creator five years ago and director of the ‘Vente to live a town’ platform, he told Efe that The interest of foreign citizens for moving to a rural area is “very high”especially in Latin America.
Pradera points as reasons for this interest that in a small population is easier to find an affordable price, often in addition to better quality than with the same budget in a city; that there is work, in sectors such as hospitality, field, mechanics or attention to adults; and that there are municipalities that offer aid or facilitate the procedures for setting up a business.
#Empty #Spain #attracts #foreign #workers #increase #regions
