Residential dynamics of Latin American immigrants in the Barcelona and Madrid metropolitan areas: Trend changes during economic expansion, crisis and post-crisis periods

Abstract

This article examines the geographical settlement and migration patterns of the Latin American-born population in the functional urban areas of Barcelona and Madrid, Spain, from 2000 to 2017. The municipalities of these areas have been grouped into several rings according to their distance to the central cities. Using data from local population registers (Padrón Continuo) and statistics on residential variations published by the Spanish National Statistics Institute (INE), the present research studies how these phenomena respond to economic cycles. For this reason, three periods of varying duration are studied: economic expansion (2000–2008), crisis (2009–2014) and post-crisis (2015–2017). The results show that the suburbanization of Latinos in both urban areas during the economic growth phase was halted by the crisis but reactivated during the post-crisis stage. Nevertheless, in recent years the Latino population has become increasingly concentrated in both central cities, as immigration flows from Latin American countries have reactivated once again.