Inside the cavernous production plant in north-eastern Spain, among millions of legs of Spanish hams travelling down spinning hooks and conveyer belts, people from 62 different nationalities work side by side to keep the BonÀrea food company humming.
Mainly from Ukraine, Romania, Bulgaria, Morocco and Senegal. BonÀrea is extra reliant on foreign labour with 40% of its 5,000-strong workforce foreign-born, but its formula for success has been reproduced across businesses across Spain to make it the envy of the industrialized world. Spain’s economy was projected to have grown by 3% last year, smashing the Euro zone average of a paltry 0.8%, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. That even beats the United States growth rate of 2.8%, according to OECD projected figures. And while Trump pledges to close borders and expel millions of foreigners, Spain’s government, business owners, and economists agree that migrant workers are key to the success.
Practically all the population growth in Spain since the COVID-19 pandemic is due to immigration with 1.1 million people having arrived in 2022, according to the Bank of Spain. The bank credits the newcomers with sustaining the social security system of an aging Spain.
The central bank says that 85% of the 433,000 people who found a job last year between January and September were foreign born. It adds that 70% of working-age foreigners were working in Spain in 2022, compared to 56% of native Spaniards. Spain bucks anti-migration trend Spain’s economic success comes amid a widespread shift among the governments of rich countries toward tightening borders and the blatant anti-migrant rhetoric of Trump.
Across Europe, the rise of anti-migrant sentiment has spurred far right political parties. The far-right had a chance to govern in Austria and Germany’s far-right party AfD came in second in Sunday’s general elections with 20.5% of the votes, doubling its previous results. France’s National Rally is likewise bullish on its chance to eventually take power.
Spain has seen the rise of far-right, anti-migration political forces, who fixate on unauthorized migration from Africa and Islamic countries.
Mohamed Es-Saile, 38, arrived illegally to Spain when he was 16, crossing border at the Spain’s north African exclave of Ceuta and then hitching a ride on a truck and a ferry to the mainland. He has since then made a life for himself working as an electrician and repairman at BonÀrea. He said that of course he is aware of the fear of Islam that drives part of Europe’s migration backlash, even if according to him he has not experienced it in Guissona.
Latin American migrants have made up the bulk of recent arrivals. According to the most recent census, over 4 million Latin American immigrants are living in Spain.
Víctor Razuri was brought over by BonÀrea from Peru last year after he was selected to fill a spot as a mechanic and electrician. The 41-year-old Razuri said that he has had little problem adapting himself to his new country and the small village of Guissona in rural Catalonia.
Spain has, like many governments, struggled with unauthorized migration across the Mediterranean Sea and backed EU deals with Morocco to try to stem flows. Yet Spain, under Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has no plans to stop its influx of authorized foreigners. Sánchez has stuck by his defense of legal migration, especially given its economic benefits.
Spain added nearly 318,000 authorised immigrants from January to October of 2024, according to the National Statistics Institute. Spain’s ministry for social security and migration says that 45% of all news jobs created since 2022 have been filled by around half a million new foreign-born workers.
Nearly three million foreigners now represent 13% of the entire workforce. While 31% come from other EU countries, the leading countries of origin are Morocco, Romania, Colombia, Italy, Venezuela, China, Peru and Ukraine. They have a heavy presence in service jobs, construction, farming, fishing and home care and cleaning. An aging Spain requires workers.
The reason for Spain’s stance is clear: the Bank of Spain estimates that Spain would need 30 million working-age immigrants over the next thirty years to sustain the current balance between workers and retirees-plus-children.
The steady stream of people packed on tiny boats journeying from Africa’s western shore to Spain’s Canary Islands has created a humanitarian crisis. Countless die in the attempt to reach the archipelago, and social services of the small islands are strained to attend to the thousands of unaccompanied minors who make it along with adults. But while the political rhetoric internationally was continuing to turn against migration, 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, and thus, in theory, avoid the perilous seaborne route.
Results from that ambitious plan have yet to be seen, but the government is also aiming to bring unauthorized migrants already in Spain into the system. Last November, Sánchez’s left-wing coalition announced that it would provide working permits and papers to 900,000 more foreigners already in the country illegally over the coming three years with hopes to get them working and paying taxes.
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