The Continuity of Migration Drivers: A Historical Perspective on Spanish Social Transformations

Efforts to map migration drivers have in part resulted in calls to abandon rigid economic and demographic indicators so as to explore how cultural and political factors facilitate or constrain migration. Although a considerable amount of research has investigated the migration-development nexus, its focus is often shortsighted or primarily on developing countries. Instead, this chapter adopts a social transformation perspective to analyze how processes of change at the political, economic, technological, demographic, and cultural levels have impacted the drivers of Spanish migrations since the early 1880s to the present day. To do so, the chapter draws on a collection of statistical data on Spanish migration and societal indicators, as well as on a comprehensive literature review of the social and migration history of Spain. The chapter argues that the interrelation between three forces explains Spanish migration transitions: (1) state expansion and contraction, (2) economic fluctuations, and (3) uneven urbanization processes. Ultimately, the chapter also demonstrates that the unequal development of central and peripheral areas within the country is a consequence of social transformations, and in turn, links past and present by illustrating how similar factors have triggered migration dynamics for more than a century.