Foreign immigration in Catalonia: the new motivations of european citizens for the displacement and the attraction of the tourism

Abstract

New economic, social, political and cultural changes have emerged in the last decades in Europe, in the context of the re-estructuring and internationalization of the economy. These changes have led to other important changes in the tertiary sector, and also influenced in the increased of the international movements of population. The increasing flows of population from northern to southern European countries are one example of this new mobility of population. Moreover, the development of tourism sector in Mediterranean coastal areas is offering job opportunities to many foreign immigrants, in order to work on the tourism sector. The aim of this article is analyse the movement of foreign EU citizens to coastal areas in Cataluña, many of tose have settled small tourism businesses. Thank to the completion of individual surveys, we will mainly analyse the changes in motivations for the move, and the main reasons to change their residence to Cataluña.