Antiguas y nuevas diásporas: una caracterización de la población de nacionalidad española en el exterior a partir del PERE

In this paper, we analyse different aspects of the Spanish citizens abroad in the context of the new emigration flows stemmed from the economic crisis. This research has been carried out using the microdata from the recent ‘Padrón de Españoles Residentes en el Extranjero (PERE)’ (register of the Spanish citizens living in a foreign country) and it presents at the end a typology according to the municipalities in Spain where Spaniards abroad have selected to be assigned. Our findings prove that the main growth mechanism for this population (40 per cent in the period 2009-2014) is a consequence of the legislative changes regarding the acquisition of the Spanish nationality. These changes mostly affect the descendants of the former Spanish emigration, which took place before 1950. Despite the academic contributions about the recent flows from Spain, the new Spanish emigration still has a testimonial presence in the PERE. However, this source allows detecting the outburst of the recent immigrants’ transnational mobility, who now have a Spanish citizenship. These people, pushed by the crisis, return to th