The impact of family models on spatial mobility and integration of immigrants in Spain

Carolina Montoro, Universidad de Navarra
Dolores Lopez, Universidad de Navarra

One of the most significant demographic changes in Spain in recent years has been its transformation from being a sending country of emigrants to being a receiving country of immigrants. The debate concerning the need to accept or reject further immigration and the issue of its regulation aside, the Spanish society must address a key question regarding the integration of immigrants who have already arrived and the mechanisms which enable this process. On the assumption that the family plays a significant role in social integration processes in general, and in line with the perspective outlined above, the purpose of the study proposed here is to explore the role of the immigrant’s family in relation to both spatial mobility and social integration. The project is facilitated by a new source of information supplied by the National Statistics Institute (Spain): the “National Survey of Immigrants (2007)”.