Although there is hardly any analysis on the impact of the entry (or replacement) of Spanish employees with immigrants, experts agree that at an aggregate level there is no negative effect and that it only occurs in a “small way” in workers with lower salaries.
In a recent colloquium on immigration at the Col.legi d’Economistes of Barcelona, ??professor at the University of Barcelona Judit Vall cited a study on the United Kingdom labor market where “a negative impact of immigration on the growth of wages in the population with lower incomes. But the overall effect is zero.”
In the case of the industry, however, this hypothesis should not affect because workers in the sector tend to be at the highest remuneration levels, as confirmed by an ICSA-Eada report last week. The average paid by basic employees in the industrial sector is more than 30,000 euros, compared to just over 18,000 in the tourism and commerce sectors.
Vall also explained that the exponential increase in the arrival of young immigrant women in the case of Catalonia has caused “a 5% reduction in the gender wage gap of the native population.” According to Vall, “immigrant women do the work of caring for the little ones and the elderly, which has allowed native women to enter the labor market and improve their salary income.”
Data from the latest labor force survey (EPA) corresponding to the fourth quarter of the year show that more than half of the new jobs created have been occupied by immigrant employees. It is a trend that has continued in recent years and is especially notable in communities such as Catalonia, where they have come to represent around 90% of the new employment created.
