Abstract

The purpose of this text is to review the literature that has been produced in Spain since the 1990s on the migration–development nexus. The text shows how this set of studies constitutes a field of knowledge production and an ethnographic area of knowledge that builds Spain as a ‘place’ where knowledge about this field is produced and circulated. The core issues are identified and analysed: the linkage between migration and development and cooperation for development; studies of specific geographical areas; the connection between migration, gender, and development; the relationship between remittances and development; the role of migrant associations in development and finally, co-development. Co-development allowed Spain to adopt a more benign migration management model within the EU, which included international development cooperation as part of its intervention to prevent emigration. The text concludes pointing out that the Spanish model of migration and development has undergone a gradual process of Europeanisation through an adaption to European migration policies and to the EU’s economic and development model.