Would Spain be a Paradigm of a New Transnational Migration? Assessing Trans-European Migrants through National Statistics.

Abstract

Due to the increasing volume of European Union citizens now living in other EU countries, the European Commission has started talking about the so called “New Europeans”. However, within the transnational migration context, it would be better to call them “trans-European” citizens, as they have ties with more than one EU member state and therefore they have more than simply one national or cultural identity. Moreover, as these connections can be at different levels, there are also diverse sources allowing to analyse each of them. The paper’s aim is twofold: firstly, we intend to evaluate Spanish sources on these new trans-European citizens and, secondly, follow their recent volume in Spain. Results confirm that Spain could be considered a paradigmatic case of this new trans-European migration. However, the phenomenon should also be situated within this last decade's immigration boom context.