The Gain in Spain

WHEN YOU THINK of the great capitals of Europe, Paris, Berlin, and Rome come to mind. For those in the know, however, there is a new kid on the block—Madrid. Spain’s capital has long been regarded as somewhat of a second fiddle to the Gaudi-glamour of Barcelona. It lacks the grand architecture and historical heft of many of its European counterparts.

As recently as the mid-16th century, Madrid was a provin­cial backwater, with less than an ideal climate. In 1561, it was plucked out of obscurity when Philip II of Spain unexpect­edly chose it as the permanent location of what had until then been an itinerant court. This was a decision that puzzled many. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and father of Philip II, reportedly said, “If you wish to preserve your kingdom, then you should make Toledo its capital; if you wish to expand it, select Lisbon; and only if you wish to lose the kingdom, choose Madrid.”

The quote is probably an example of an early urban myth, but Madrid’s reputation as somewhat unsophisticated and stuffy stuck for centuries, with tourists often bypassing it for the sunlit charms of the white villages of Andalusia, or the azure waters of the Costa Brava, off Catalonia.

Being married to a Spaniard, I have been coming to Spain since 2004. My first memory of Madrid is of a plane full of people smoking at the baggage carousel inside the airport terminal while awaiting their suitcases, right under a fading “No Smoking” sign.

In the first decade of the millennium, the Spanish capital was filled with smoky bars, where the service was surly and the clientele salty. It was customary at these places to discard paper napkins, cigarette butts and olive pits on the floor, wherein they would be swept away every hour by a dishev­eled cleaner. Dustbins were non-existent, menus were limited, and a vegetarian was viewed as an exotic and somewhat an­noying beast. Ditto for foreigners, in general. The city-centre’s streets were strewn with plastic and its walls slashed with graffiti. In the parks, Spanish gypsies, clothed in funerary black thrust sprigs of rosemary at passersby, in return for coin, which if denied would result in a flurry of curses.

Fast-forward to today, and the Spanish capital is in the midst of a renaissance that is transforming it into somewhere more cosmopolitan, trendy, and expensive than was imagin­able even a decade ago. Central Madrid’s contemporary avatar is awash with hipster cafés where baristas sporting man buns serve up non-fat, soy lattes. The Spanish gypsies have been supplanted by Romanian ones in colourful skirts. The corner shops have been taken over by Chinese immigrants, to the extent that the shops themselves are referred to as “Chinos”. The single neighbourhood of Usera has over 10,000 registered Chinese residents.

But mostly, it’s a large-scale influx of Latin American immi­grants from both up and down the economic scale that is mak­ing Madrid a rival to Miami as the “capital of Latin America”. Ranging from Venezuelan oligarchs fleeing confiscatory populism to Peruvian nurses and Ecuadorian delivery men, it is this diaspora that has been largely responsible for a 20 per cent growth in Madrid’s foreign-born population since 2016. In 2022, more than 820,000 Latin Americans were living in Madrid, according to the INE—Spain’s statistics institute— 50 per cent more than in 2015.

Those immigrating with hefty wallets are being welcomed with open arms by the local government. Last year, a plan was announced that would allow recent arrivals to Spain to deduct 20 per cent of the value of new investments from their tax bills over a period of six years. This is a local scheme, but at a national level, the Spanish government is also luring the immigrant dollar.

Spain has a “golden visa” that gives residency (though not citizenship) to anyone investing €500,000 in the country. It also recently passed a “digital-nomad” law, to attract geographically mobile, knowledge workers.

For the well-heeled, choosing Madrid over Miami is in part based on the former’s cultural offerings which include world-famous museums, like the Prado, as well as the home of Picasso’s Guernica, the Museo Reina Sofia. These two muse­ums, coupled with a third, called the Thyssen- Bornemisza attract over 7 million visitors a year.

Maria Fernandez Gomez de Llarena is a Venezuelan archi­tect who moved to Madrid in 2017. In doing so, she came full circle. Her grandfather was a Spaniard who had immigrated to Caracas, the Venezuelan capital, in the 1950s, looking for bet­ter economic opportunities. At the time, Venezuela with its oil-fueled growth represented a land of opportunity for many Spaniards, given that Spain was struggling in the aftermath of a civil war, under the dictatorship of General Franco.

Half-a-century later, Venezuela’s economy has collapsed leading to one of the largest mass migrations in history. More than 7 million Venezuelans have fled the country since 2015. And although the large majority have settled in other Latin American countries, Spain has received a substantial number, estimated at about 300,000. For Maria Fernandez, the move has been all about an improved quality of life. The greatest luxury, she says, is that of being able to walk in public without fear.

What is different about the influx of Latin American immigrants to Spain, compared to say the North African im­migration to Belgium, or Germany’s Turkish diaspora, is that a shared language, Spanish, and religion, Catholicism, make integration less problematic. The Venezuelan shop assistant is as likely to be named Maria as her Spanish customer. The result is a lack of the culture wars that have roiled other parts of Europe, where immigrant populations with a very different set of cultural values struggle to blend in with host countries.

In Spain, outrage and alarmist anti-immigration rhetoric is muted. According to the latest survey data released by the Spanish Centre for Sociological Research, only 2 per cent of the population considers immigration to be the main problem facing Spain today, and just 12 per cent mention it as even a key issue. Politicians, unemployment, the economy and public health ranked higher as sources of concern. In contrast, in France, 45 per cent of the population said that “there are too many immigrants,” according to a December 2022 survey by marketing research firm, Kantar.

It should be pointed out that Spanish attitudes to illegal North African immigrants is less benign than the survey data quoted above might suggest. However, what is not up for debate is Madrid’s ongoing transformation, something that has also resulted in a very bubbly real estate market. House prices are rocketing in Madrid, bucking the declining trends in all other major European capitals from Paris to Berlin. If this trend continues, and Spaniards find themselves squeezed out of the housing market, a more negative attitude to immigra­tion is also likely.

But in the meantime, one can well imagine Philip II giving his father, Charles V, a triumphant smile. It might have taken a while in the proving, but his bet on Madrid as the capital is finally paying off.

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