24 April, 2014

By VIVA Team

Fewer registered Brits does not mean that Spain’s obvious attractions have waned

Figures released this week by Spain’s Institute of National Statistics (INE) have triggered a flood of gleeful articles in the British press denouncing the ‘end of the dream’ for thousands of Brits that have ‘fled’ Spain.

From the Daily Telegraph to the Mirror via the Daily Mail, each article leads on the fact that there were almost 90,000 fewer Brits registered at town halls across Spain at the end of last year when compared to the end of 2012 – down to just 297,229 from 383,179 a year previously.

This ‘loss’ of 87,000 or so British people from official registers in Spain is certainly noteworthy. It is the second-year in a row that Spain’s overall population has shrunk, assisted by diminishing numbers of French expats (down 12.7 per cent in the past year) and German expats (down by 138,917 since 2012), reducing Spain’s official population from 47.2 million in 2012 to just 46.7 million today. The number of native Spaniards grew slightly, by 141,361, as did the number of Chinese nationals now living and registered in the country.

But tales of a mass British exodus are misguided…

The INE figures do appear to show a trend that no doubt tallies with Spain’s recent economic struggles. Jobs have been increasingly hard to come by throughout the country, not least in Andalucía, and in many places the cost of living has not fallen sufficiently enough to match depressed wages. Hence, it is unsurprising that a large chunk of foreign nationals – attracted to Spain for its climate, lifestyle and employment opportunities – have thrown in the towel.

But two facts remain. The economies of both France and the UK are only just recovering from their own recessions, which means that the surge of many thousands of Brits and French expats who would ordinarily have taken the place in Spain of those heading the other way has been suppressed. It takes spare cash, time and the knowledge that if all fails you can return safely home to emigrate, even for a short while. Currently, economic conditions in Britain and France do not instill such confidence in the respective nations’ youth and upwardly mobile.

Secondly, the British Embassy in Madrid estimates that as many as 800,000 British people live for all or part of the year in Spain – the majority of whom fail to register as residents at their local town hall. And there is the rub. The INE does not collate or publish other measures that could give a more accurate measure of who lives in Spain. For example, the UK can confidently state that 51,000 Spaniards moved to Britain for work in 2013 because that is the number who applied for a national insurance card. No national insurance card = no employment. No employment = very little attraction in moving to the UK.

Things are not so transparent in Spain, particularly if the Brits, French and Germans are moving there to buy a property. While one should register immediately at the local town hall, many do not because they do not feel compelled to do so, and failure to do so does not impinge on normal life – you can still work and buy property without registering as a resident.

What the figures really tell us is that Spain has been – and still is – an extremely popular country for people from stable, wealthy countries. Sure, Spain attracts economic migrants just like all first-world EU countries, but no other country in Europe has played home to such a diverse range of Europeans who moved there purely because it boasts one of the best lifestyles in the world.

It was their decision. They were not coerced. They made a choice. And now, a larger proportion than normal has made the choice to leave. They will be replaced at some point; of that there is no doubt. With Spain’s economy once again picking up pace, we may soon begin seeing the country’s population increasing sooner rather than later.

But it is highly doubtful that the British media will report on that story with quite the same level of unabashed glee…