Walter Finch
SPAIN’S far-right party Vox was on the receiving end of a powerful backlash after it outlined a radical plan to deport all eight million immigrants in the country – including those already naturalised and even their kids.
Vox’s demographic emergency spokesperson Rocío de Meer later walked back the comments, explaining that the party would only target recently-arrived and non-working immigrants with criminal tendencies and a devotion to religious extremism.
However, leading economists were quick to warn that Spain’s economy would face a quick and complete collapse if all immigrants in the country were deported.
READ MORE: Spain’s far-right party openly plans to deport ‘recently arrived’ immigrants
Such a mass deportation would strip Spain of a fifth of its entire workforce, according to analysis by Spanish television channel laSexta, which examined the catastrophic economic consequences of the proposal.
“It would be a true apocalypse for the economic system itself,” said Massimo Cermelli, professor of economics at Deusto Business School.
“The system would collapse from a growth perspective.”
Spain currently hosts nearly 9.5 million migrants in various legal situations, with more than 7.5 million in employment – representing 85% of the migrant population.
The figures highlight just how dependent the Spanish economy has become on foreign workers across multiple sectors.
The impact would be felt most severely in domestic services, where nearly three out of four workers are migrants.
Half of Spain’s hospitality workforce consists of foreign nationals, while a third of construction and agricultural workers are migrants.
A quarter of transportation and distribution workers also come from abroad.
Francisco, a farmer from Sevilla, delivered a blunt message to those advocating mass deportations: “They’ll have to come to the harvest and pick the olives themselves.”
His words echo the reality documented across Spain’s key industries, where migrant workers have become indispensable in caregiving, delivery services, and construction.
Without them, these services simply could not be provided at current levels.
Carmen González, senior researcher at the Elcano Royal Institute, warned that sudden mass deportations would force many sectors to either disappear entirely or dramatically shrink.
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“If they were to disappear suddenly, it’s clear that many sectors of activity would either disappear or would have to be much smaller than they are today,” she said.
The economic dangers of such policies are already being demonstrated across the Atlantic, where Donald Trump’s deportation of one million migrants has begun to impact the US economy.
“The deportation data, that is, the reduction in labour supply, is already beginning to have an impact along with the introduction of tariffs,” Cermelli noted.
Rather than pursuing mass expulsions, experts argue the key lies in adapting the existing systems to better help new arrivals integrate into Spanish society.
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