Foreign retirees, municipalities and registration in Spain

Vicente Rodriguez, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Raúl Lardiés-Bosque, Universidad de Zaragoza

The immigration and settlement of foreign retirees in coastal areas of Spain during the last decades has been an increasing and well-known phenomenon. The Population Census is the main statistical source to study this population, although the Municipal Register (Padrón Continuo) is the instrument used by the municipalities to register and collect the resident population as their number and basic demographic characteristics. However, the numerous problems related to the registration of this group of population in their municipalities of residence are leading to a significant and not always well known underreporting. Causes and factors affecting the registration of foreign retirees in Spain before and after the recent economic crisis are analyzed. On the one hand, information comes from in-depth interviews with immigrant pensioners living in coastal municipalities of Andalucía during 2007, before the economic crisis Spain emerged; secondly, documentary sources from the European Observatory of Retirement Migration (OEG, in Spanish) referred from 2007 to date were also consulted. Along the time, this analysis will reveal the factors driving and restraining the registration of retirees in the Municipal Register, as well as the advantages and disadvantages associated with the register of these immigrants. The municipalities affected by an important number of retired immigrants should make an effort to provide more truthful figures on its foreign population (volume, origin, age, educational level, etc.) to better plan and manage the facilities and services offered at the local scale. Therefore, it will be very useful to know and consider these aspects for the scientific research and for the agents responsible for management of municipal Padrón and local policies. Opinions of immigrants in Spain will help to understand this situation.