Social and Labour Market Integration of

Ethnic Minorities in Spain

By: Sara de la Rica

Unversity of the Basque Country, FEDEA, IZA

December, 2008

The author acknowledges financial support from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science (
SEJ2006-10827/ECON) and from the Basque Government (IT/241-08)

1

1 - Introduction

Spain has been traditionally a country of emigrants. During the 1850-1953

period, approximately 3.5 million Spaniards left for the Americas from regions such as

Galicia, Asturias and the Canary Islands. Argentina, Uruguay, Brazil and Cuba were

some of the most popular destinations of these emigrants. However, from the mid 1970s

onwards, Spain became the host country of foreign labourers from Northern Africa and

Latin-America. Out migration diminished during the international economic crisis of the

early seventies, whereas immigration grew at a steady pace. The transition from an

immigrant-sending to an immigrant-receiving country was the by product of a larger shift

in regional migration patterns. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, Mediterranean

countries, such as Spain, Portugal and Italy, became immigrant-receiving nations due to a

variety of factors, such as: (1) their geographical proximity to immigrant-sending regions,

e.g. Africa; (2) the barriers to immigration in traditionally immigrant-receiving nations

during the 1950s, 1960s, and part of the 1970s, as it was the case in Germany,

Switzerland and France; and (3) the improved economies of Mediterranean countries.

The largest immigration flow has taken place from the mid nineties onwards.

Figure 1 shows the changing composition of the immigrant stock from 1995 to 2004.

1

Although Europeans used to account for half of all immigrants in 1995, the stock of

immigrants from Latin American and Africa has increased at a faster rate after the year

2000, catching up with the stock of European immigrants by the year 2004.

In addition to ethnic minorities coming from immigration, another ethnic minority

group in Spain that deserves attention is the group of Romas. This is not an ethnic

1

Figure 1 refers to the stock of immigrants with residence permits in each of the plotted years.

2

minority group coming properly from immigration, as the others mentioned before, given

that they are present in Spain for over 600 years. Indeed, an estimated 500.000 - 800.000

Roma/Gitanos are settled throughout the country, with the largest communities in the

provinces of Andalucía (more than 40%). Roma/Gitanos are not even officially

recognized as an ethnic minority group, despite Romani requests for social and political

recognition. Thus, there is no legal protection of their identity, culture, language and

other minority rights.

In this chapter, I will try to describe the Roma labour market situation as an

additional ethnic minority group, although there are no reliable nation-wide statistics

about the situation of Romas in Spain. Most of the description of the situation of Romas

in Spain is taken from EUMAP (2002).

I will treat ethnic minorities coming from immigration and Romas as separate

groups given their distinctive nature and situation.

2. Statistical Overview

2.1. Demographic Characteristics of Immigrants

If we consider individuals from Europe as a non-migrant group, then it is fair to

say that the most important ethnic minorities in Spain coming from immigration are

Africans and Latin Americans, and to a lesser extent, immigrants from Asia.

The most recent and extensive database that can be used to analyze the ethnic

minorities in Spain is the micro-data from Census 2001 (5% sample). The 2001

Population Census was fielded by the Spanish Institute of Statistics during the last term

of 2001. Around 13 million households and 40 million individuals were interviewed.

3

The Census has the advantage of, in principle, interviewing all immigrants independent

of their legal status. Nonetheless, we are aware that an important fraction of

unauthorized immigrants may not fill in the questionnaire and, as such, this group is

likely to be under-represented in the Census. The Census gathers information on personal

and demographic characteristics (such as age, education, marital status, relationship to the

household head, or province) and job characteristics (such as work status, occupation,

and industry). In addition, for immigrants –defined as individuals reporting a foreign

nationality, the Census collects information on the number of years elapsed since entry

and on the country of origin. An important drawback regarding the Spanish Census Data

is that it does not provide individual information on wages. Any information on wages

must be gathered from a complementary Database, the "Earnings Structure Survey" ,

2002.

Table 1 displays some basic demographic characteristics of natives and

immigrants in Spain. Taking into account all individuals, the first thing to note is that by

2001 immigrants represented 4% of the population share in Spain

2

. Immigrants are on

average much younger than natives (the age difference varies depending on the country

of origin of immigrants). Except for Latinos, the incidence of males is higher for

immigrants than for natives. Likewise, the proportion of working aged individuals (16-65

years) is much higher among immigrants than among natives. Regarding the geographical

distribution, immigrants are mainly distributed in five Spanish regions: Madrid,

Catalonia, Valencia, Andalusia, and The Canary and Balear Islands. These regions attract

around 82% of immigrants, relative to 63% of natives. However, immigrants are

2

Given the high pace at which immigration is taking place in Spain, by 2006 the immigrant population

share has reached 8% of the total population. However, the latest available individual-level information is
that from 2001 Census Data.

4

unevenly distributed in these regions. Whereas African and Asian immigrants concentrate

primarily on Catalonia (30% of African and Asian live in Catalonia, relative to only 15%

of natives) , Latinos are heavily concentrated in Madrid (around 47% of latinos live in

Madrid, compared to 13% of natives).

[Insert Table 1]

2.2 Demographic Characteristics of Romas in Spain

Given that Romas entered in Spain more than 600 years ago, their incidence of

male/female population and other characteristics like age are very much like those of the

majority group. However, regarding geographical location, the largest Roma

communities are located in the provinces of Andalucia (more than 40 percent), Valencia

and Murcia, followed by major cities such as Madrid, Barcelona, Sevilla, Granada,

Valencia and Zaragoza.

2.3. Labour Market Outcomes of Natives and Immigrants

Table 2 displays educational attainment and labour market status of working aged

individuals in the sample. Regarding education, African and Asian immigrants appear to

have attained lower levels of education, whereas Latinos show similar educational

attainment than natives. With respect to Labour Market Status, the labour force

participation rate is around 10 percentage points higher for immigrants than for natives,

although the unemployment rate is also higher for the former (between two and 5

percentage points, depending on the place of origin of immigrants)

3

. African immigrants

3

The percentage of part-time versus full-time work has not been reported because the incidence of part-

time in Spain is on average very low (around 5%).

5

suffer the highest unemployment rate among immigrants (14.4%), and Asian the lowest

(11.3%).

[Insert Table 2]

Turning now to employed individuals, table 3 displays basic job characteristics of

natives and ethnic minorities in Spain. Regarding type of employment, it can be seen that

except for Asians, the percentage of immigrants that work as employers (with employees)

or as self-employed is much lower than the corresponding ones to natives. On the other

hand, the vast majority of immigrants work as salary workers. In addition, the incidence

of permanent contracts among natives is almost 20 percentage points higher than among

immigrants.

Regarding wages, the first thing to note is that given that the Census does not

report information on wages, this is taken from the 2002 Earnings Structure Survey

4

.

Looking at average wages, it can be seen that average hourly wages for immigrants are

about 30 % lower than that for natives.

In the third place, table 3 displays basic differences on industry and occupational

distribution of natives and immigrants in Spain, although there are also differences within

the immigrant groups. Whereas almost half of the employed natives work in either Trade

or Services, less than 20 % of immigrants work in these sectors. However, industry

concentration differs very much depending on place of origin. For instance, around 25%

of Africans work in Construction (compared to 16% of Latinos and only 11% of Asians),

4

This survey contains individual information on 169,520 full-time workers (117,161 men and 52,359

women) from 21,621 establishments (only establishments with 10 or more employees). In addition to
establishment level information, the survey collects individual level data on gross hourly wages for a
random sample of workers from each establishment. Nationality of workers is reported, so hourly wages for
our ethnic minorities (except for Asian) is reported. Nevertheless, given the sample restrictions, it is likely
that the sample of immigrant workers contained in this survey is not fully representative of the immigrants'
workers. As such, no better data on individual wages is available for Spain.

6

whereas Latinos are more concentrated in Domestic Services (21%, compared to 5% of

Africans and 12% of Asians). Finally, Asian workers are primarily concentrated in Hotels

(26%, compared with 9% of Africans and 13% of Latinos).

As with respect to differences in occupational distribution, there are also notable

differences between natives and immigrants. The vast majority of immigrants (85% of

Africans, 61% of Latinos and 44% of Asians) work in Manual Jobs, either qualified or

non-qualified. Differences among natives and immigrants are particularly huge at the two

extremes of the occupational distribution, i.e., professionals (much higher incidence

among natives, except for Asians), and non-qualified Manual Jobs, where the incidence

of immigrants is much higher than that of natives.

[Insert Table 3]

2.4. Labour Market Outcomes of Romas in Spain

Although there are not precise statistics of educational attainment and labour

market status of Romas in Spain, there is consensus that levels of school enrolment

among the Roma population have improved significantly in recent years. According to

sources from the FSGG (2002)

5

, as of 2001, the vast majority or Romani children (90%)

began school at the same age as their non-Roma classmates (enrolment of non-Roma

majority population is 100%). Moreover, studies show that differences between Romani

pupils' age and grade level tend to increase by the end of primary school. One important

issue about Romanis' school attendance is that absenteeism is still very high. Irregular

school attendance reaches 45% of Romas compared to 3.8% of non-Roma ethnicity.

5

FSGG states for Fundación Secretariado General Gitano.

7

However, in the very recent years, Romani families’ attitudes towards school appears to

have changed considerably, and there is an increasing number of Romani parents

monitoring their children's attendance and performance and participating in school-

relating activities. Finally, Romas are overrepresented in public schools.

Regarding labour market situation of Romas, many Romani families are engaged

in a combination of formal and informal employment; many are self-employed but are

not registered as such. Street selling jobs take up an extremely high proportion of

working age Roma Population (between 50 and 75 percent). Around 20% of them are

engaged in seasonal agricultural jobs.

3. Labor Market Barriers

Section 2 described raw differences between natives and ethnic minorities in

Spain regarding personal demographic, educational and labour market characteristics.

However, in order to be able to draw on any conclusion regarding possible labour market

barriers faced by ethnic minorities, we must be able to see the extent to which

disadvantages faced by the minority groups are due to their differences in productivity or

to other non-productive related issues.

As before, I will make a distinction between labour market barriers faced by

immigrants and those faced by Romas given their very distinctive nature.

8

3.1. Labour market barriers faced by immigrants

Labour market barriers may be the result of different barrier types: There may be

social barriers that may cause marginalization and exclusion in the labour market,

linguistic barriers that prevent immigrants from fully integrating in the host country's

labour force, or economic barriers that prevent workers to integrate adequately in the host

labour market. Identification of social and linguistic barriers and furthermore, the

assessment of the impact of these barriers on the performance of immigrants in the host

country's labour market requires the availability of large micro datasets containing

information on natives' individual attitudes regarding ethnic minorities, language fluency

and so no. To date, no such data exists for Spain, so it is not possible to analyze from an

empirical viewpoint the importance of these social and cultural barriers for the labour

performance of immigrants in Spain.

However, with respect to economic barriers it is possible to move forward.

In particular, availability of micro data allows us to isolate the individual characteristics

of natives and immigrants and see the extent to which identically observable natives and

immigrants face different opportunities in the labour market. Furthermore, it is possible

to assess whether these different opportunities change as immigrants lengthen their stay

in Spain. These different opportunities can be understood as labour market barriers.

Identification of differences in labour market performance between natives and their

"alike" immigrant counterparts, as well as the dynamics of these differences as

immigrants lengthen their stay in Spain may help us understand the labour market

integration problems that Spanish immigrants face.

9

Amuedo-Dorantes and De la Rica (2007) analyze the labour market integration of

recent Spanish Immigrants in Spain

6

. In particular, they examine in the first place

immigrants’ employment integration as captured by changes in the employment

probability differential between similar immigrants and natives as immigrants’ stay in

Spain lengthens

7

. Secondly, they look at the integration occupation-wise of employed

immigrants. They rank occupations on the basis of their average earnings according to

the 2002 Spanish Earnings Structure Survey and analyze immigrants’ occupational

assimilation as their residencies in Spain lengthen relative to similarly skilled natives.

The analysis is carried out separately by gender so as to uncover differences in the

economic adaptation of male and female immigrants. In addition, immigrants are

distinguished according to their place of origin. Several conclusions can be withdrawn

from their analysis. First, immigrant men and women appear significantly less likely to

be employed than similarly skilled natives. The employment gap varies by gender (from

15 percent for men to 4 percent for women) as well as by immigrants’ origin. In

particular, African immigrants are only 8 percentage points less likely to be employed

than comparable natives. Among women, recently arrived Latino women are statistically

more likely to be at work than alike natives. Differences in the employment assimilation

of various immigrant groups can be due to a variety of factors. Specifically, Africans

may primarily migrate to look for employment. They may also have lower reservation

wages owing to greater earnings differentials between Spain and their home countries or

enjoy a lesser degree of skill or language transferability than other immigrant groups.

6

Asian immigrants are not included as a separate group in this work due to its small sample size.

7

This issue has been treated, among others, by Bevelander and Nielsen (2000) in Sweden and Wheatley

Price (1999) and Clark and Lindley (2005) in the U.K

10

Second, there exists evidence of an occupational attainment gap between African

and Latino immigrants and their native counterparts. The data also seem to support the

notion of upward occupational mobility and assimilation on the part of Latino immigrants

as their Spanish residencies lengthen. However, they find no clear pattern of

occupational assimilation in the case of African immigrants, which could be linked to

skill transferability reasons, language proficiency, and/or labour market discrimination.

This study also examines differences in the occupational assimilation patterns of

immigrants depending on their educational attainment. They find that low educated male

immigrants with lesser human capital experience a slower occupational assimilation

process than their counterparts with a secondary education. However, this pattern is only

observed in the case of male immigrants, suggesting the existence of gender differences

in the educational and occupational attainment of immigrants and natives possibly

driving the different role played by education in explaining male and female immigrant

assimilation

8

.

3.2. Labour market barriers faced by Romas in Spain

Public opinion surveys show that Spaniards are tolerant of differences in

nationality, race or religion compared to other European Union countries. However, there

is a widely shared negative common perception of Roma. They are seen as a group that is

resistant to integration. In this context, barriers against the entry of Roma in the labour

market are quite significant. It is commonly believed that Romas "do not work", or even

"would steal from their employers". Employment offices report that many companies

8

For more details on labour market integration of immigrants in Spain, see Amuedo-Dorantes and De la

Rica (2007)

11

openly refuse to employ or even interview Romani applicants. As a rule, employment

discrimination is more visible in the practice of private companies, but is not limited to

the private sector. Indeed, NGOs have registered numerous cases of discrimination by

both private and public employers (for more details, see EUMAP (2002), p. 311)). This

practices are even more acute against Romani women.

4. Public Policy

4.1. Public Policies aimed at Immigrants' Integration in Spain

The main legislative acts existing in Spain regarding immigrants concern the

immigrant entry rights and work permits. Given the recent nature of immigration in

Spain, there are not many specific legislative initiatives aimed at eliminating labour

market discrimination and promoting labour market integration of immigrants. However,

we should mention some policy initiatives that the Government has recently developed so

as to help immigrants' integration in the Spanish Labour Market.

The first one was carried out by the Ministry of Employment and Social Affairs

and consists on the creation of a Forum for the Social Integration of Immigrants . The

Forum was created in 2000 and its purpose was (and continues to be) to give service and

support to the integration of immigrants who reside legally in Spain. Its composition,

authority, responsibilities and operating regime are regulated in Royal Decree 367/2001,

of 4 April, and its constituent assembly was held on December 19, 2001.

The Forum for the Social Integration of Immigrants has the following functions:

• Draft proposals and recommendations tending to promote the integration of

immigrants and refugees into Spanish society.

12

• Receive information on programs and activities carried out by the national, regional

and local governments in matters related to the social integration of immigrants.

• Collect and channel proposals formulated by social organizations that are active in the

realm of immigration, with an eye toward ensuring the best possible coexistence of

immigrants and their host society.

• Prepare an annual report on the tasks accomplished and on the status of immigrants’

and refugees’ social integration.

• Draft reports on the proposals, plans and programs that may affect immigrants’ social

integration as required by the competent national government bodies.

• Whatever other actions that may be considered necessary with regard to the

integration into Spanish society of legally resident foreign nationals, as well as any

other action that the provisions in force may assign to the Forum.

A second governmental initiative promoted to improve immigrants' integration in

Spain is the creation of a Permanent Immigration Observatory. The Permanent

Immigration Observatory is a collegial body that has the following assigned functions:

data collection, analysis, study and publication of information with migratory movements

in Spain. The Observatory is attached to the Ministry for Employment and Social Affairs

through the Secretary of State for Immigration and Emigration. Its legal composition is

stated in Royal Decree 345/2001, of April, which entrusts it with the following

responsibilities, among others:

13

• To act as a permanent body for the collection, analysis and exchange of information

on matters concerning aliens, immigration and asylum among national and regional

government agencies and local entities.

• Reception and analysis of the information supplied by public and private entities, as

well as by organizations and associations that are related with immigration.

• Compilation, promotion and diffusion of the information obtained, as well as printing,

publishing and distribution of studies, reports and information related to immigration.

• Preparation of studies and publications, both by the Observatory itself and by outside

sources, among which the annual “Alien Affairs Statistical Yearbook” stands out.

The Permanent Immigration Observatory functions in both plenary sessions and

through technical and scientific committees. Its President is the Secretary of State for

Immigration and Emigration.

To my knowledge, there is no evaluation of the achievements obtained from both

governmental initiatives regarding immigrants' integration.

14

4.2. Public Policies aimed at Romas' Integration in Spain

The idea of a national programme to improve the situation for Roma first

appeared at the beginning of the 1980s. In 1985, Parliament created an administrative

unit to oversee and provide funding for the implementation of development projects. It

was called the Rome Development Program (RDP). A variety of "employment

integration" schemes have received State and Regional funding through the RDP. This

include pre-employment training, career guidance, assistance and supervision to help

young Romas integrate into the labour market. The Ministry of Social Affairs have

financed various programmes to assist street sellers, which as stated before, gives

occupation to more than half of working age Romas.

An encouraging development is called "Acceder". This is an EU-supported

programme, which for the first time includes the Romani community as a special target

group for the operative programmes of the European Social Fund. "Acceder" branches

opened in each participating municipality function as a network of parallel employment

offices for Roma, prividing training, counselling and mediation services.

However, the RDP receives a variety of criticism from the Romani

community, mainly because Romas are not participating in designing, implementing or

evaluating the RDP at a national level.

15

5. Business Policy

a) Overall Perception of the Social Partners Towards ethnic minorities in Spain:

a.1) Perception towards immigrants:

The Spanish Employer Confederation (CEOE) is in favour of increasing the

quotas of incoming immigrants considerably, since the production system needs more

personnel - especially in catering, construction, and agriculture. At this stage, it is clear

by everybody that immigrant workers accept (they have no choice) wages and working

conditions that the Spanish workers do not accept, and suggest that matters would be

different if wages rose and jobs were more secure in many of the sectors that today suffer

from a shortage of workers.

However, at this point all social partners (employers and unions) agree that there

are two issues that must be undertaken with no delay: "regularise" the employment sector

and irregular immigration in the country, and to manage labour migration through social

dialogue. In this respect, the election of the new Spanish Government in March 2004 had

led to a strategic turnaround in immigration policy, establishing a link between

immigration and the labour market. A social dialogue has been set up and negotiations

initiated with the main social players (employers and workers); the dialogue focuses, in

part, on the measures that could be taken to improve the situation of irregular immigrants

in the country. In this way, the special process of regularising the situation of migrants

was initiated. The process has been a success and that all the proposed objectives have

been adequately met, with the "administrative regularisation" of around 600 000 people.

16

The social dialogue promoted by the Spanish government has also resulted in the

creation of a permanent Forum – the Comisión Laboral Tripartita (Tripartite Labour

Committee) – made up of workers and employers and also dealing with immigration

policy. The general objective of this committee is to boost legal immigration, focusing on

the need to manage migratory flows (stepping up recruitment at place of origin), to

pursue and penalise bad practices, and to have a flexible system enabling employers to

act swiftly. Social dialogue seems to be accepted as a good practice, and essential when

tackling immigration; it is also needed in order to ensure that the rights acquired thus far

are maintained.

a.2) Perception towards Romas:

Sociological research has suggested that Roma are the ethnic group most

consistently rejected not only by employers, but also by teachers, pupils and society in

general. Moreover, studies carried by the Romani Union indicate that media coverage of

Roma and Romani issues is predominantly negative.

In the last decade, there have been some governmental initiatives to cooperate

with local press and television to improve the image of Romas in the mass media.

However, these initiatives have proven to be of a symbolic rather than practical value.

b) Companies and practices with ethnic minorities

I do not know of any company that has either implemented desirable policies for

immigrants (or Romas) or that has not done so on purpose. My view about this is that

immigration is still a very recent phenomenon in Spain and that in general companies are

far from thinking on implementing these kind of measures. Spain is still some steps

17

behind this stage compared with other EU countries, where immigration has been an

issue for more than one generation. To date, companies are basically concerned with

regularization of illegal immigrants and with reaching agreements with immigrants

countries so as recruitment is done at place of origin. When these premises are already

solved, there may be room for companies to think on good practices for ethnic minorities.

6. Policy Implications

6.1. Policy Implications directed to economic integration of Immigrants in Spain

Although section 4 reveals that public initiatives regarding economic integration

of Immigrants in Spain have been quite scarce, evidence from Amuedo-Dorantes and De

la Rica (2007) reveals that Latinos and Asian Immigrants assimilate quite quickly in

terms of employment and, although to a lesser extent, in terms of occupational upgrading.

However, the analysis also reveals that there is more need to play close attention to

immigrant groups displaying greater assimilation difficulties, as is the case with Africans,

in order to prevent marginalization and subsequent social tensions (e.g. recent immigrant

riots in France). The offering of training programs that allow these immigrants to more

easily transfer their human capital and acquire Spanish specific skills sought by

employers in addition to language skills could prove useful in facilitating their

adaptation.

6.2. Policy Implications directed to economic integration of Romas in Spain

The former sections have described the precarious situation of Romas in Spain, as

well as the scarcity of well designed policy measures directed to improve their social and

18

economic integration. A number of policy recommendations can be done so as to

improve their situation:

- The first of all is to pass the necessary legislation to fully recognize Roma as an ethnic

minority in Spain.

- Take necessary legislative and policy measures to prevent and reverse segregation and

ghettoisation of schools. Design initiatives that apply the concept of intercultural

education, giving due consideration to the incorporation of positive aspects of Romani

culture.

- Establish independent specialised bodies capable of effectively implementing anti-

discrimination legislation at work.

- Replace the Roma Development Programme with a new strategy at national level for

the improvement of the labour situation of Roma, ensuring full participation of Romas in

it.

My last remark regarding Romas is that in spite of many political measures that

can (and must) be undertaken, inasmuch as the general attitude towards Romas do not

change in Spain, there is little room for the full social and economic integration of this

ethnic minority group. To overcome a change in this general attitude, both Romas and the

rest of the society must make a very important effort towards accepting and

understanding the other.

19

References:

Amuedo-Dorantes and De la Rica (2007), "Labour Market Assimilation of Recent

Immigrants in Spain", forthcoming in British Journal of Industrial Relations.

Bevelander, P. and HS Nielsen. (2001). “Declining employment success of immigrant

males in Sweden: Observed or Unobserved characteristics?”, Journal of

Population

Economics, 14 (3) , pp: 455-472.

Clark, K. and J. Lindley (2005), “Immigrant Labour Market Assimilation and Arrival

Effects: Evidence from the Labour Force Survey”, Sheffield Economic Research

Paper Series, No. 2005004, University of Sheffield.

EUMAP (2002). "The Situation of Roma in Spain", available at

(http://www.eumap.org/reports/2002/eu/international/sections/spain/2002_m_spai

n.pdf).

FSGG (2002), "Evaluation of Educational Normalisation of Romani Children", Madrid,

2002, p. 190

Wheatly Price S. (1999). “The employment adjustment of male immigrants in England”,

Journal of Population Economics, 14(1), pp: 193-220

20

Figure 1

Evolution of Foreign Residents in Spain by Place of Origin, 1995-2004

0

400

800

1200

1600

2000

1995

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2002

2003

2004

Years

Thous

ands

European

Latin-American

African

Source: Anuario de Extranjería and Permanent Observatory of Immigration (Immigrants with
Residence Permits).

21

Table 1

Average Basic Demographic Characteristics of Natives

and Ethnic Minorities in Spain

All

Natives

African Latinos

Asian

Share of the
Population

100 96.2

0.81

1.53

0.17

Age

39.4 39.7 27.8

29.6

31.6

Proportion
Female

51 51

34.1

55.7

43.3

Proportion
Workingage

68.4 68.0

80.12

81.7

83.52

Regional
Distribution
(%)

Madrid

13.27

12.9

16.02

47.2

26.2

Catalonia

15.5 15.4 30.8

17.9

32.7

Valencia 9.01

8.9

7.21

9.8

7.5

Andalusia 18.01

18.2

12.9

6.13

8.7

Balear and
Canary Islands

6.2 6.0 6.4

8.6

12.4

N.
observations

2.039.255

0.961.634

16.515 31.137 3.520

Source: 2001 Census (Spanish Institute of Statistics)

Notes: All Individuals included

22

Table 2

Average Individual Characteristics of Natives and

Ethnic Minorities in Spain: Education and Labour Market Status

All

Natives

African Latinos

Asian

Age

38.4 38.6 31.9

32.7

34.5

Education (%)

Less primary

8.6

8.4

32.6

6.8

13.9

Primary 20.0

20.12

26.5

17.3

19.3

Secondary 55.3

55.4

34.9

60.5

51.5

University 15.7

15.8

4.9

14.5

14.0

Labour Market
Status

Labour Force
Participation

67.6 67.3 77.0

77.9

75.8

Unemployed

9.6 9.5

14.4

13.6

11.3

N.
observations

1.395.893

1.331.929

13.233 25.250 2.940

Source: 2001 Census (Spanish Institute of Statistics)

Notes: Working aged individuals (16-65) included.

23

Table 3

Job Characteristics of Natives and Ethnic Minorities in Spain:

Type of Employment, Industry and Occupational Distribution

All

Natives

African

Latinos

Asian

Type of
Employment (%)

Employer

6.47 6.57 2.41 2.75 9.20

Self-Employed

10.33 10.47 6.28 5.71 11.04

Salary Worker

82.26 82.02 90.58 90.66 79.01

Permanent
Contract

54.7 55.6 27.5 38.01

38.61

Average monthly
wages (gross)

1669.7

(1305.9)

1677.7

(1305.9)

1088.1

(484.7)

1127.5

(965.2)

---

Average hourly
wages (gross)

9.78

(7.83)

9.83

(7.76)

6.23

(2.83)

6.46

(5.55)

---

Industry
Distribution (%)

Agriculture 6.32

6.07

24.09

7.96

4.44

Construction 11.76

11.47

24.88

16.05

10.93

Trade 15.46

15.66

11.89

9.82

17.79

Hotels 6.22

5.89

8.83

13.31

25.58

Services 32.97

33.72

8.58

17.52

13.60

Domestic
Services

2.26 1.76 5.11 20.69

11.98

Occupational
Distribution (%)

Professional 8.7

8.84

2.63

3.43

10.04

Technical

23.04 23.55 3.88 11.07 9.99

Clerical Jobs

24.48

24.60

14.93

23.94

33.3

Qualified
Manual Jobs

31.44 31.68 35.36 23.58 20.51

Non-Qualified
Manual Jobs

11.54 10.57 39.90 36.64 23.55

N. observations

818.084

729.960

8.317

16.470

1.911

Source: 2001 Census (Spanish Institute of Statistics) ; Information on wages is taken
from the 2002 Spanish Earnings Structure Survey . Information on Asian wages is
not available.

Notes: Employed individuals included.