Foreign workers help Spain's economic growth outpace the US and the rest
of Europe
[February 28, 2025] By
JOSEPH WILSON and SUMAN NAISHADHAM
GUISSONA, Spain (AP) — Inside a cavernous production plant in Spain,
people from 62 nationalities work side by side to keep a food company
humming as millions of legs of ham travel on hooks along conveyor belts.
Foreign workers have helped to make Spain’s economy the envy of the
industrialized world, even as anti-immigration sentiments grow elsewhere
in Europe and in the United States.
“BonÀrea would not be possible if it weren’t for the people from other
countries who have come here to work. We should be eternally grateful to
them,” the company’s head of human resources, Xavier Moreno, told The
Associated Press during a recent visit.
Tapping into foreign labor helped Spain’s economy grow by about 3% last
year, smashing the euro zone average of 0.8%, according to the
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
That also beat the U.S. growth rate of 2.8%, according to OECD projected
figures, where President Donald Trump has pledged to close borders and
deport immigrants who are in the country illegally.
Spain’s ministry for social security and migration says 45% of all jobs
created since 2022 have been filled by around half a million new
foreign-born workers. Nearly 3 million foreigners now represent 13% of
the country’s workforce.
“We had two ways to deal with the challenge,” the minister, Elma Saiz,
told the AP. “That Spain be a closed and poor country or an open and
prosperous one.”
Pedro Aznar, professor of economics with the Esade Business School in
Barcelona, said the influx of foreign workers has helped Spain fare far
better than Germany, the traditional motor of Europe’s economy, whose
manufacturing industry is in crisis.
Spain is driven by services, in particular its buoyant tourism sector.
Foreigners do typically lower-wage jobs that many Spaniards don’t want.
And while Spain takes in fewer asylum-seekers than other European
countries, it’s in the rare position to attract millions of economic
migrants from South America who swiftly incorporate into Spain's job
market and social fabric thanks to the common language.
Practically all of Spain’s population growth since the COVID-19 pandemic
is due to immigration, with 1.1 million people arriving in 2022,
according to the Bank of Spain. It credits the newcomers with sustaining
the aging country’s social security system — a challenge common in other
European nations.
The bank said 85% of the 433,000 people who found a job last year
between January and September were foreign-born.
Bucking the anti-migration trend
Across Europe, the rise of anti-migrant sentiment has spurred far-right
political parties. Spain also has seen the rise of anti-migration
political forces that focus on unauthorized migration from Africa and
Islamic countries, but they haven't been able to impose their narrative
as deeply.
Mohamed Es-Saile, 38, arrived from Morocco illegally when he was 16,
crossing into Spain’s north African exclave of Ceuta. He now works
legally as an electrician and repairman at bonÀrea.
“I don’t feel any hate toward migrants here,” Es-Saile said. “From my
point of view, a person (from abroad) can adapt to situations in a new
country, even sometimes better than people from that country.”
Latin Americans have made up the bulk of immigrants who arrived legally.
According to the most recent census, over 4 million Latin American
immigrants were living in Spain legally in 2023.
Víctor Razuri was brought over by bonÀrea from Peru last year as a
mechanic and electrician. The 41-year-old said he has had little problem
adapting.
“In Peru, you don’t see many people from other parts of the world. When
I got here, I was working with people from Ukraine, from Morocco, and
with a few other people from Latin America,” he said. “It was a little
tough at first, but I think I have adapted.”
To help integrate newcomers, bonÀrea offers classes in Spanish and
Catalan, help with work permits, and finding homes and schools.
Representatives of workers from different countries meet regularly to
discuss issues related to cultural differences.
[to top of second column] |
Víctor Razuri, 41, from Peru, is photographed at a ham drying plant
in Guissona, Lleida, Spain, Thursday, Feb. 20, 2025. Inside a
cavernous production plant in northeastern Spain, among millions of
legs of Spanish ham traveling down hooks and conveyer belts, people
from 62 nationalities work side by side to keep a successful food
company humming. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu Parra)
 ‘Our future prosperity’
Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has defended legal migration,
drawing attention to its economic benefits. Spain added an estimated
458,000 authorized immigrants last year, according to the National
Statistics Institute.
While 31% come from other EU countries, leading countries of origin
also include Morocco, Colombia, Venezuela, China, Peru and Ukraine.
New arrivals often take service jobs, construction, farming, fishing
and home care and cleaning.
“Welcoming those who come here looking for a better life is not just
an obligation, it is also an essential step to guaranteeing our
future prosperity,” Sánchez told Parliament in October.
An aging Spain requires workers
Social changes in Spain have opened the job market for newcomers
without creating dramatic social tensions, despite chronic high
unemployment at 10.6%.
The Bank of Spain estimates that an aging Spain will need 30 million
working-age immigrants over the next 30 years to sustain the balance
between workers and retirees-plus-children.
In Barcelona, cafe owner Jordi Ortiz said there is no way he could
keep his business going without his staff of mostly South Americans.
“It is basically 80% of people from abroad, 20% from here,” Ortiz
said. “Spaniards just don’t want to work in the service sector.”
Emily Soto, originally from the Dominican Republic, serves tables at
the cafe. She and her family emigrated in 1998. Since then, things
have changed.
“When I got here there was nobody else from my country, I mean we
could count them on our fingers,” Soto said. “But now they just keep
coming.”
Contractor Víctor Lisbona in Barcelona said fellow Spaniards no
longer follow in their parents’ footsteps, and estimates that around
80% of the carpenters, electricians and construction professionals
he has worked with are foreigners.
“Young Spaniards don’t want to do the hard jobs, the construction
work, driving trucks, carpentry. They want to study to be lawyers,
doctors,” Lisbona said.
New work permits for migrants
Spain has struggled with unauthorized migration across the
Mediterranean Sea and has backed European Union deals with Morocco
to try to stem flows. Meanwhile, the stream of migrant boats
journeying from Africa’s west coast to Spain’s Canary Islands has
created a humanitarian crisis. Countless die in the attempt.
Sánchez toured Mauritania, Senegal and Gambia last year to promote a
temporary work scheme whereby African workers could get legal and
safe passage to Spain. Results have yet to be seen.
The government also aims to bring unauthorized migrants already in
Spain into the system.
In November, Sánchez’s left-wing coalition announced it would
provide work permits and papers to some 900,000 foreigners already
in the country illegally over the coming three years, with hopes
they will work and pay taxes.
BonÀrea will be waiting to give them jobs, Moreno with human
resources said, with some 700 posts likely available.
___
Naishadham reported from Madrid.
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