Venezuelans overtake Colombians within the classification of recent overseas associates to Social Security in 2025 | Economy | EUROtoday

Spain ended the yr 2025 with 205,000 extra overseas associates, bringing the entire to three.08 million, in line with figures distributed this Friday by Social Security. It isn’t new: it’s the fifth yr in a row through which this registry has grown with this power, round 200,000 affiliations. Of this impulse, the nationality with the best prominence is the Venezuelan, which added 40,600 extra members in 2025, effectively forward of the second with probably the most vigor, the Colombian, with 28,900 extra. Venezuelan management is a novelty, after three years through which its Colombian neighbors have been those that contributed probably the most new jobs of overseas origin to Social Security.

There is one other Latin American nation amongst people who present probably the most new jobs. Peru, in fourth place, provides 13,226 new jobs. The progress in these three international locations and in the remainder of the continent is behind the milestone that was reached final yr: there are already a couple of million Latin Americans affiliated with Social Security.

The circulate of arrivals of Venezuelan staff has been intensifying virtually yr after yr. Since there have been data (these disaggregated by nation start in 2012), by no means earlier than have so many new associates from the Caribbean nation been included in a single yr. After the setback within the Great Recession, the quantity started to climb in 2015, with 2,081 extra associates. The quantity has been rising little by little, with new arrivals even within the yr of the pandemic (16,003 extra in 2020). In the final decade, it’s estimated that eight million individuals have left Venezuela, many making an attempt to flee the repression of the Chavista regime, but additionally the financial strangulation suffered by the nation.

One in 4 Venezuelans (24%) work within the hospitality trade, in line with information offered by Social Security to this newspaper. Other Latin communities additionally work primarily in bars and eating places, corresponding to Argentines (23%), Colombians (21%) or Peruvians (17%). Of the 5 largest Latin teams in Spain, solely Ecuadorians are principally devoted to one thing else: 17% are employed in development.

The second most essential sector for Venezuelans is commerce (16%), a thriving exercise within the autonomy through which they’re most concentrated: the Community of Madrid. 35% reside within the capital area, effectively above the 13.5% in Catalonia, 10.9% within the Valencian Community and seven.8% in Andalusia.

The complete variety of Venezuelans affiliated with Social Security in Spain stands at 216,000, which makes it the fourth largest overseas labor group. In first place is Morocco (373,000), which not too long ago overtook Romania (337,000) after a few years of the European nation within the lead. The Maghrebi labor group in Spain continues to develop (it was the third nation that contributed probably the most new jobs in 2025, 26,800), however the Romanian one is stagnant (it solely added 1,800 new jobs final yr).

In third place is Colombia (250,000 members) and in fifth, Italy (205,000). The high ten locations are accomplished by China (128,100, 6,400 extra members in 2025), Peru (101,000 members, 13,200 extra), Ukraine (78,000, with 5,900 new registrations), Ecuador (74,000, with 1,300 extra) and Portugal (70,000, with a achieve of two,400 members).

200,000 extra foreigners

From December 2024 to the identical month of 2025, Social Security has gained 204,700 extra overseas associates, in a yr through which the Spanish labor market gained half 1,000,000 jobs. Thus, 40% of recent affiliations are defined by the overseas group.

In absolute phrases, the rise in 2025 is a determine just like that of 2024 (212,000), that of 2023 (208,000), that of 2022 (191,000) and that of 2021 (191,200). Thus, a five-year interval is accomplished through which every year the Spanish labor market incorporates round 200,000 affiliations of overseas origin. Since 2019, 960,500 extra overseas associates have joined and since 2015, 1.46 million.

As the Spanish labor market more and more employs extra individuals, this absolute fee marks an more and more smaller relative improve. That is to say, in comparative phrases the arrival of overseas associates is reducing: we now have gone from a rise of 9.2% in 2021, in full restoration after the pandemic, to 7.95% in 2024 and seven.1% within the final yr.

This fee of job creation brings the entire variety of overseas associates to Social Security to three,078,000, after surpassing the barrier of three million in May of final yr. José Antonio Moreno, head of migration at CC OO, then commented to this newspaper that because the pandemic there was an “exponential increase in the incorporation of the migrant population” into the labor market, a mirrored image through which Mónica María Monguí, a migration specialist and researcher on the Complutense University of Madrid, agreed: “It is a multi-causal and transnational phenomenon. If we look at the Latin American community, the one that is growing the most, perhaps the political and economic crises have to do with it, as well as the intensification of entry into the United States and the network of family and friends that is already settled in Spain.”

The overseas labor group now represents 14.12% of membership, when earlier than the pandemic it stood at 10.95%. “The 2025 balance demonstrates that the contribution of foreign people is structural and decisive for employment growth, the sustainability of the pension system and the shared prosperity of our country,” displays the Minister of Social Security, Elma Saiz, in statements offered by her division.