International Immigration and Suburbanization in Spain's Main Urban Areas: Is Recession Changing Urban Growth Trends?

Jordi Bayona-i-Carrasco, Universitat de Barcelona
Fernando Gil-Alonso, Universitat de Barcelona
Isabel Pujadas, Universitat de Barcelona

Spain has fifteen large metropolitan areas with more than half a million inhabitants. During this last decade –after a long period of stagnation or negative growth–, their core cities have clearly grown (due to foreign immigration), while suburbanization, to which foreigners have also incorporated, has intensified. The upsurge of the economic crisis (2008) and its strong impact on the real estate sector draw an end to this urban expansion and growth period, and metropolitan areas enter a new phase to which we address our attention. The paper’s aim is to analyze the impact of the current deep economic and housing market crisis on population growth and composition of the Spanish largest urban areas, giving an answer to research questions like: Have core city demographic recovery and suburbanization flows been affected by the sharp economic cycle change? Have foreigner flows and stocks been particularly touched, compared to Spanish-nationality population ones?