This paper assesses the inter-regional migration and international emigration of native-born and immigrants in Spain and Italy during the most recent economic cycle. We aim to describe the impact of the crisis that heated both countries on the intensity and demographic profile of the different forms of international emigration -return or remigration to third countries- and internal migration. Using microdata from the “Estadística de Variaciones Residenciales” for 2006 – 2015 and, we estimate migration rates of inter-regional migration and different forms of international emigration, including return and remigration. Additionally, we use also microdata from the “Transferimenti di residenza anagrafiche” in Italy.

Furthermore, we specify multinomial regressions for each country to assess effects of the individual demographic characteristics, economic cycle, region of residence and country of birth on the probability of moving abroad versus moving internally. Preliminary results show that for Spain, return migration and emigration to an unknown destination increased significantly for inter-regional migration at late stages of the crisis while internal mobility was the preferred response at early stages of the crisis.

This paper discusses the chronology of migration responses, showing that the pattern already observed in Spain holds to explain the mobility reactions to the economic cycle in Italy, and points to the similarities and differences between both Southern European countries.