MIGRANTS are being encouraged to move to Spain’s rural areas as the bigger cities strain against the continued arrival of residents.
Foreign-born individuals make up 20% of the entire Spanish population, but that percentage goes down below 9% in nonurban areas.
Immigration levels have increased from one in 20 to one in five over the last 20 years, mostly driven by new arrivals from South America.
In an interview with the Financial Times, Spain’s government official on demography policy explained how the rural sections of the country will struggle without the use of immigration.
‘The only way to maintain what we might call sustainable population pyramids is by bringing new settlers into rural areas,’ Francesc Boya told FT. ‘While some of those new settlers may come from the cities, many will come through immigration.’
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While the ongoing influx of migrant workers have helped develop Spain into the largest growing economy in just two years, the outcome has also put an added stress on living situations.
Housing costs have gone up, as well as an increase in public services being used.
In terms of politics, Spain’s central government proposed a national strategy to take the citizens who are obtaining residency in Spain and place them in the less crowded towns.
Boya asserted that the government does not wish to push people out of major cities like Barcelona and Madrid, but ‘the government is keen to encourage people from urban areas’ where the ‘quality of life would probably improve substantially in rural areas.’
One of the goals is to set up funding for non-profits and councils who will help migrants with medical care, schooling and language courses.
Another method that has been proposed is to use the non-profit Fundacion Racies, which aims to take vulnerable immigrants who are in reception centres and find them jobs in the less populated areas of Spain.
An example was given by Boya regarding the town of Villagaton in Castile and Leon, where nearly 80% of the population is made up of migrants from Senegal, Columbia and Gambia.
The municipality has a small population of just 600 people and a workforce that is mostly made up of factory workers making fences and parasols.
Tax incentives will also be offered to people who move to rural areas by Spanish regional governments.
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The common term ‘Espana vaciada,’ has been used recently to describe the empty areas of Spain.
A Bloomberg analysis found that 84% of territory in the nation is considered rural, but only 16% of Spanish residents live outside of major cities.
The Spanish Institute of Statistics claim that within the 8,131 municipalities in Spain, more than half contain a population that is less than 1,000 residents.
Areas that have the highest volume of depopulation include Aragon, Castile-La Mancha and Castile and Leon.
