The National Institute of Statistics of Spain reported that, in that country, during 2020, in the midst of the pandemic, almost 20,000 Argentines settled, and in 2021, when freedom of movement returned, another 33,000. These 53,000 new residents are added to the 300,000 Argentines who were already officially living in Spain.
Although there are no data for 2022, it can be assumed that the increasing flow has been sustained. In the youngest, there may be a desire to live the experience of settling in a European country, especially if they have a community passport, whether for personal or professional reasons, but it is undeniable that the long cycle of our economic crisis generates anguish and Disappointment: Argentina has not offered options for personal development for too long.
The crises of 1989 and 2001 are two examples. There were not a few people or families who lost their jobs and, therefore, their autonomy, or even some property or commercial or professional venture. There was then, as now, a strong migration: forced to start over, with all that that implies, they decided to do it in another country, in a place that offered them a minimum certainty that their effort would not be in vain.
The European Union, with a common currency that embodies macroeconomic policy that is essentially the same in nearly 30 countries, is the space that so many now yearn to enter. Above all, as we said, when you have a European passport because you are the descendant of an immigrant of that origin.
And if we think of Spain, in addition, not only does the language play in favor but also a legal framework that facilitates the incorporation of foreigners into the labor market. In other words, what here can be very difficult for a young adult, becomes more accessible there. Why not try it, at least for a while? is the question that thousands ask. After all, in Argentina, meanwhile, things will continue to get worse because there is no sign of a change of course.
This framing of the phenomenon should not omit an alternative perspective that warns of the emergence of a culture of migratory circulation: for those who have dual nationality, having that second passport represents symbolic capital, a strategic resource that can be used at certain times to move from one point to another and always stay, as far as possible, in the safest place.
There were not a few Argentines living in Spain who, in the face of the financial crisis of 2008, returned to the country. But many of them chose to return to Spain from 2017, when the Spanish economy was flourishing once again, while Argentina was still not taking off.
Both lines of analysis converge at one point. There are many Argentines willing to emigrate in order to live in peace and be able to aspire to upward social mobility. It would be desirable if the political leadership could offer them the certain possibility of reaching that objective in their own land.