Unemployment, economic crisis and perception about the population immigrant in the spanish Levante

Abstract

For over a decade, Spain experienced an economic boom based on the construction sector, which led to the arrival of immigrants from different parts of the world. Someone searching of job opportunities, others investing their savings in buying homes. In those years immigration was valued by beneficial effects for the economy. After the bursting of the housing bubble and the economic crisis circumstances changed. Unemployment increased sharply and many immigrants back to their countries. Those who decided to stay saw as worsened their living conditions and work, and how the locals perceive as competitors now manifesting xenophobic attitudes towards them. In this article we rely on an ethnographic study in one of the most affected areas by the crisis in Spain, La Vega Baja del Segura, to investigate these aspects.