The Diplomat
The Spanish Social Security registered more than 2.3 million foreigners last May, after a year of uninterrupted growth that has allowed to surpass the figures before the COVID-19 pandemic.
According to data from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, exactly 2,348,595 foreign affiliates were registered in May -after discounting seasonality and the calendar effect-, which represents an increase of 4,958 from the previous month’s figure and 159,174 from that of February 2020, before the impact of the pandemic.
According to the Ministry, this group has experienced “a year of uninterrupted growth”, with an 11.86% increase in the average enrollment of workers from other countries in the last twelve months, reaching a figure of 257,299 new workers. In the first five months of 2022, the number was close to 42,000 new workers (41,931). Last April, foreigners accounted for 11.7% of the total number of Social Security affiliates, in seasonally adjusted terms.
In average terms and without seasonal adjustment, Social Security had 2,426,625 foreign contributors in May, of which 849,733 were from European Union countries (35.02%) and 1,576,892 from third countries (64.9%). This number represents 72,111 more affiliates than in April. Some 55.8% are men (1,356,247) and 44.1% are women (1,070,378).
The average enrollment of foreigners rose in all the Autonomous Communities in the last month, with particular intensity in the Balearic Islands (16.07%), followed by La Rioja (8.40%), Aragón (6.68%) and Extremadura (6.25%), and increased in most sectors, especially in Agriculture, Livestock and Fishing (10.1%), Hotels and Restaurants (8.6%), Other Services (4.4%) and Arts, Recreation and Entertainment (4.2%).
The largest groups of foreign workers came from Romania (348,126), Morocco (310,619), Italy (156,681), Colombia (112,349) and Venezuela (111,683). Other nationalities include 54,778 members from Ukraine, whose numbers have grown steadily since the beginning of the Russian invasion, up 7.44% in the last month. There are now 7,200 more Ukrainians than in February, before the Russian invasion.
Precisely, the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, presented last Monday -on the occasion of the celebration of World Refugee Day-, a balance of management of the migratory crisis caused by the war in Ukraine, according to which more than 124,000 Ukrainian refugees already have temporary protection in Spain and 8,100 have found work over the last three months.
