The Reemigration of Immigrants in Spain. Beyond Distance and Pull Factors: The Migratory Network Effect (2007-2014)

Abstract

This article focuses on an emerging territorial configuration characteristic of contemporary migration flows: the redeployment of migration fields from one country to another. It bases on a quantitative study of the spatial morphology of the re-emigration of five groups of immigrants leaving Spain from 2008 to 2014 (Moroccans, Romanians, Ecuadorians, Colombians, and Bolivians). The micro-individual analysis questions the effect of migration network variables on immigrant emigration projects, while the macroscopic analysis mobilizes three explanatory variables: the distance between Spain and the country of destination, the effect of possible pull factors and finally the role of the migration network. These two levels of the analysis highlight a phenomenon of anisotropy of re-emigration according to the geography of the migration network, both at the level of the migrant group and the individual.