Spain's INE confirms 2,500 Chinese nationals left the country in three months

Spain's INE confirms the exodus of 2,500 Chinese nationals in three months

That Spain is approaching 50 million inhabitants thanks to immigration is a mantra repeated ad nauseam. Less often repeated: more than 2,500 Chinese citizens left the country in a single quarter, according to the INE (Spain's national statistics institute). The figure lands like a yellow canary in the mine of the demographic narrative: is there a deeper economic problem, or just a seasonal move?

The economy as the prime suspect

The information published by elEconomista points in a clear direction: the worsening quality of life of some households in Spain. GDP is growing in gross terms, but GDP per capita, wages and purchasing power are not trinc the same path. Trade, moreover, is transforming rapidly. The bazaars and traditional shops, rooted in the country for three decades, are seeing their business model run dry. It doesn't help that China's economy is not at its best either: when the country of origin is doing badly and the host country is stagnating, the migrant's logic is reversed.

August, the great confuser

There is a sceptical current calling for calm. Three months coinciding with summer can give a distorted reading: August is not a good month to measure departures, because tourism and temporary travel muddy the statistics. The seasonal interpretation does not cancel out the economic one; it enriches it, but it means waiting until the next quarter to find out whether the departure was a summer move or the start of a trend. Some shopkeepers cite monthly rents of 6,000 euros on premises that make the traditional business model unviable.

Are we witnessing the first flight of a community long considered one of the most firmly rooted? The INE has taken the temperature. The real fever has yet to be measured.