Second Latin American migratory boom in Spain: From recovery to COVID-19

Abstract

At the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Latin American migration to Spain showed a new quantitative increase in flows of such magnitude that we can speak of the existence of a second migratory boom. In contrast to what happened with the first migration boom at the beginning of the century, when pull factors dominated (mainly due to the expansion of the Spanish labour market), after the economic crisis of 2008 push factors played a more important role. Three processes leading to large-scale emigration are identified in Latin America: high levels of political instability in many Latin American countries such as Venezuela; growing insecurity, especially—but not only—in Central American countries, where it also coincides with increasing difficulties in entering the United States; and the effect of neoliberal policies, with growing tensions in many countries, as would be the case of Argentine migrants. Covid-19 has slowed down these flows and has led to increased numbers of returnees although the previous migratory intensities began to recover at the end of 2021.