Immigrant Populations and the Welfare State in Spain during the Economic Crisis

The economic crisis severely deteriorated the socio-economic situation of immigrant populations in Spain over the last years. Often pushed to the margins of the labour market, they survived with informal jobs in the underground economy and with a precarious access to social protection schemes. Welfare retrenchment also affected the entitlement of foreigners to social policies in Spain, notably in the domains of healthcare and poverty relief programs. This paper aims at analyzing the way in which the crisis has affected the social rights of populations of foreign origin in Spain. By using the most recent available data on the matter, the paper will analyze the situation of these groups in four key areas of the Spanish Welfare system affected by cuts and structural reforms: Social Security schemes, Social services, housing policies and healthcare. Policy developments in those areas will be analyzed in order to study the extent to which the politicization of foreigners’ access to those programs played a role in the framing of those welfare cuts and reforms.