Work activity among regrouped African and Latin American families in Mediterranean Spain

This research is based on the results of a survey administered by the research team in 2009-2010 with 348 African and 457 Latin American family reunification immigrants living in the coastal provinces of Spain between Girona and Almería. The results provide information on the employment situation of the two groups from separate continents both for the study area as a whole and for three smaller areas: coastal Catalonia, the Region of Valencia and Murcia-Almería. Due to certain issues, sponsor immigrants and reunified families (i.e. sponsor, spouse and children living together in Spain) are treated separately. The study focuses on employment structures by economic sector, as well as migratory networks, which are crucial in the direction of these flows towards Spain, employment regulations for these workers, how the current crisis is affecting reunified families (unemployment, number of people per family in work, and income), job satisfaction of family members (working hours, and employment and wage problems) and job stability (time in employment, professional training courses, current job and immigrant’s expectations). Following analysis of these employment issues and their links to the two groups of immigrants and their families, as well as to the different regional areas, very different economic and social situations are shown to exist between Africans and Latin Americans. Differences are also shown between those living on the coast of Catalonia and in Murcia-Almería, as a result, among other causes, of the various personal «capital» brought by the two groups of immigrants in order to gain access to the job market (training, language, etc.) and the different economic structure of the areas studied. The worst economic situations were reported for Africans and for immigrants living in the southern provinces of the area studied.