Center for Social Innovation

For a long time, Spain was an exporter of people. During the 20th Century, some six million Spanish people, looking for a better life and better opportunities abroad, settled in the Americas, North Africa and Northern Europe. In the 1970s, this flow reversed, and by 1992, the foreign population in Spain was increasing by 10% annually. Spain now has one of the highest foreign populations, with 12.2% of its 45M inhabitants of foreign nationality.

Relative to other countries, Spain's immigration policies have been incredibly liberal. As the country experienced rapid growth during the late 1990s and 2000s, immigrant workers from Latin America, Eastern Europe, North Africa and elsewhere provided a welcome boost to the local labour force. As in other countries, the immigrant workers concentrated in manual positions and in the service sector, particularly construction, agriculture, hospitality and domestic services. Recognising labour shortages, the Spanish government made it easy for immigrant workers to enter Spain, publishing a list of occupations needing workers, and providing visas to foreigners wishing to fill the positions.
As the economy boomed, Spain's foreign population's contribution to growth and employment was significant - up to 50% of GDP growth from 2002-2007 can be attributed to immigration, and the increased economic output led to more than half of the generation of new Spanish jobs.

However, the economic tides turned in 2008, with Spain's boom abruptly turning to bust. Rather than needing more and more workers, Spain's unemployment rate ballooned to 20%. Unsurprisingly, as the economy has slowed, anti-immigrant sentiment has strengthened, and conditions have worsened significantly for Spain's existing foreign population as they bear the brunt of wage and job cuts.

Puentes Global's mission was developed while Spain's economy was growing rapidly. Then, it made sense to have a trustworthy organization, concerned with poverty reduction and human capital development work with corporations needing skilled manual workers to recruit talented people in the developing world to work in Spain, gain skills, send remittances home, and maybe return to start profitable businesses in their home countries. As the economic landscape has changed, we are also evolving. We continue to work on a pilot project where we recruit workers from Mexico, but now are focused more on them returning to open franchises than staying to work in Spain indefinitely. This summer, we are also exploring ways to help immigrants reach their economic potential through entrepreneurship . Our aim is to be like venture human capitalists, relieving poverty by helping immigrant workers achieve their full potential.

Sources:

• Spain: Forging an Immigration Policy 
• Spain: Immigrants Welcome 
• Inmigración en España