Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/333624 
Year of Publication: 
2025
Series/Report no.: 
IZA Discussion Papers No. 18185
Publisher: 
Institute of Labor Economics (IZA), Bonn
Abstract: 
International migrants choose their country of residence to maximize their utility. As a result, their choices are informative about the relative attractiveness of countries. This paper explains why Spain became the fourth most attractive country in the world for international migrants in the period 2015-2024, what I define as the Second Spanish Immigration Boom of the century. First, an accounting decomposition shows how, contrary to other destinations, Spanish-specific factors, correlated with economic conditions and general migration policies, have a larger weight in explaining immigration to Spain than origin-specific factors. Second, the causal relevance of bilateral visa policies is also shown, particularly in the context of Latin American immigrants, by using origins that are required a visa to enter Spain as a control for visa-free access countries in a generalized differences-in-differences setting. Finally, the effects of the Boom on immigrant selection are also analyzed, finding that the Second Boom was different from the first because educational selection improved.
Subjects: 
international migration
gravity model
selection
JEL: 
F22
J11
J61
O15
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.