Keywords

1 Introduction

The profound and long-lasting economic crisis that Spain is suffering since 2008 has imposed dramatic changes in its economic, social and institutional dynamics, as well as in the realm of migration and its political management. These changes have not only reduced the strength of arrival flows, but have also reinvigorated outmigration, which was simply unthinkable only a few years ago (Arango 2013). As a result, migrants in Spain have adopted different strategies to face increasing challenges, including high levels of unemployment, an ever expanding segmentation of the labor market as well as significant restrictions in the access to social services due to budgetary constraints (see Chaps. 2, 3 and 5).

In this chapter we seek to study a rather unexplored form of vulnerability in the resilience strategies adopted by Latin American migrants living in Spain (see Chap. 1). We look at the impact that the economic crisis had on the survival and activity of transnational migrant associations and, more specifically, the impact that the recession is having on what we previously defined a “top-down model of integration and transnationalism” (Cebolla-Boado and López-Sala 2015). To do so, we updated a survey conducted in the context of the Comparative Immigrant Organizations Project (CIOP) developed between 2010 and 2012 by the Center for Migration and Development (University of Princeton) and coordinated by prof. Alejandro Portes.Footnote 1 Our driving hypothesis here is that after several years of economic crisis and drastic cuts in public spending (particularly since 2011, with a new and conservative government in office), this model of immigrant integration and transnationalism with a strong participation of transnational immigrant organizations financed by the State was in danger of undergoing a drastic transformation.

The CIOP unveiled important differences in the European and U.S. approach to migrant organizations, which were highlighted by Portes and Fernández-Kelly (2015). Regardless of its internal heterogeneity, the European strategy appear to promote a systematic exchange between officials and leaders of migrant organizations, who are unofficially appointed as informal representatives of communities and migrants as a whole. Among new immigration countries, such as Spain, a number of associations have gained a leading role in the definition and implementation of immigrant integration policies. Public funds have been granted in priority to senior organizations with stronger connections to officials in origin and destination countries. In other words, this model is severely subsidized by elected officials seeking representative stakeholders to legitimize their policies. We defined this approach as a top-down model of integration and transnationalism (Cebolla-Boado and López-Sala 2012, 2015). By contrast, the U.S. took a laissez faire approach towards immigrant organizations and their activities, and has seldom intervened in an active manner. Instead, the influence of immigrant associations in the U.S. public sphere has been less subsidized and articulated through civic engagement and lobbying.

We expect that the crisis should “Americanize” the top-down model that was developed in Spain. In this article we develop this argument and contrast its empirical grounds by using pre and recession data for the Spanish case.Footnote 2

The chapter is divided in two parts. First, we describe the origins and development of the literature on migrant organizations in Spain. We also describe the emergence of the top-down model to integration and transnationalism, created to accommodate incorporation and co-development policies and to legitimize them among the native population, the new immigrants and long-term foreign residents. Second, we describe the effect of the crisis in the survival strategies of transnational Latin American immigrant organizations. We also explain the results of the survey conducted in 2013 to contrast the hypothesis of the “Americanization” of the Spanish approach to ITAs.

2 Spanish Research on Latin American Immigrant Associations

The initial literature on Latin American migrant associations in Spain originated in the early 1990s as the first migration flows in Spain settled. The aim of most of this first wave of studies was merely descriptive. Some sought to differentiate the objective and strategies of pro-immigrant associations and migrant associations (Casey 1997). Other contributions analyzed the social participation of specific migrant communities, mostly Peruvians and Dominicans (the most populous groups at the time), as well as Argentineans distinguishing between Spanish organizations and newly created ethnic-national organizations formed by newcomers (Veredas 1998; Pérez 2000; Gallardo and Paredes 1994; del Olmo 1990). Research on Latin American migrant associations gained momentum in the first years of the last decade stimulated by the intensification of Ecuadorian and Colombian immigration, followed by unprecedented Bolivian flows.

Despite of its lack of tradition, the Spanish research on immigrant organizations has evolved along the lines of the mainstream international research agenda. To start with, some have adopted the structure of opportunities perspective (Tarrow 1994; Ibarra 2007; Ireland 1994; Koopmans and Statham 2000), which examines the influence of host country institutions in the organizations’ potential and the intensity of their mobilization. This approach was adopted by Veredas (2003, 2004) who analyzed the links between migrant associations and Spanish political institutions, the determinants of ethnic mobilization and the incentives that migrants had for participating in associations.

In the mid-1990s, research on Latin American immigrant organizations refocused to the field of participation among groups and individuals that are excluded from the political community (Martín 2004; Escrivá et al. 2009; Morales and González 2006). At the same time, the influential transnational perspective shaped the Spanish research agenda and gave impetus to the analysis of economic, social, and political dimensions of transnational activities of migrants. In this sense, the study of the role of migrant associations in granting political transnationalism was inspired by the preexisting European and American literature (Portes et al. 1999; Portes 2003; Østergaard-Nielsen 2003; Cortés and Sanmartín 2009, 2010). The collective dimension of transnationalism through forms of economic, social, and political actions of immigrant associations has been a cornerstone in this research with organizations fitting together their role in integration policies in Spain with development initiatives in countries of origin.

More recently, the literature diversified and gained complexity by incorporating different objectives including the study of leadership and the views that migrants had about their host societies through the prism of associations (Verdugo and Gómez 2006) or the impact of political and civic participation in the institutionalization of the associational fabric (Morales et al. 2009). Lastly, some other studies also adopted a comparative perspective (Aparicio and Tornos 2010). Few scholars have worked on the role that associations had in policy making (Bruquetas et al. 2008).

A final remark: most of the past research on Latin American migrant organizations has been fostered and stimulated by public funds. The academic literature on immigration and integration in Spain was developed mainly due to the strong and continuous demand from public administrations who wanted to develop novel interventions and sought in academic research guidelines to face the challenge of incorporating immigrants. Therefore, most Spanish academic research on immigration is strictly empirical and informed by policy-oriented considerations. As we shall see, in Spain, the scientific research has developed parallel to political practice and the interest of administrations to understanding how migrant associations work to inspire integration policies. In the coming section we explain the role that these organizations have had in the definition and management of these policies and, more recently, in the domain of international cooperation.

3 The Role of Immigrant Associations in the Design and Implementation of Spanish Immigrant and Cooperation Policies: Forging a Top-down Model of Integration and Transnationalism

The transformation of Spain from an emigration to an immigration country was an unprecedentedly fast and intense process. In 10 years, Spain went from having slightly positive migration rates, to becoming one of the main destinations for migrants both in the Europe and globally. The scarce experience in managing migration explains the reactive approach and ambivalence of its policy during a number of years. Three other facts added complexity to the construction of the Spanish immigration policy. First, the idea that Spain had to converge to European Union standards in setting the basis of its own immigration policy. Second, the inherent difficulties in policy making in the context of a decentralized institutional environment. And third, the extraordinary economic conditions that benefited the country over the last decade and the intense demand for foreign workers in productive areas which were intensive in labor.

Despite of this complexity, Spain managed to create formal and informal mechanisms of coordination between the administration and public institutions as well as NGOs, trade unions and migrant associations. Accordingly, the Spanish migration policy became highly concerted, with social organizations having a significant symbolic and consultative role. These sought to increase the legitimacy of policy making, to improve the access to migrants and migrant communities from the part of the administration and to improve the levels of efficacy (López-Sala 2005; Bruquetas et al. 2008). Specifically speaking about migrant association, their active role in the definition of policies spread the idea that participation and mediation was a pre-requisite for social integration, and that associations were the only valid stakeholder that could represent the entire migrant populations. Ibarra (2007) puts it in clear terms when he described the system as “participation by invitation” more than “participation by incursion”.

How did the link between Spanish institutions and migrant associations evolved over time? The evolution of integration policy in Spain can be summarized in three periods. During the early 1990s integration was not an explicit concern of immigration officials. Towards the end of 1994 and promoted by the Socialist government another phase in Spanish immigration policy began. During this period integration was actively promoted for the first time and immigration was perceived, as a permanent phenomenon which must be addressed from the point of view of settlement. The measures taken were conservative and attempted to resolve specific challenges caused by the presence of immigrants in certain social spheres and geographical areas. These concerns were echoed in public opinion and media outlets. In sum, this policy change was the result of political will and social demands. Nevertheless, during these years it is more appropriate to speak of integration procedures rather than integration policy in its strictest sense (López-Sala 2005). Up to that point, integration had been an area where non-official actors such as trade unions and NGOs deployed innovative but uncoordinated practices (Cachón 1998). In the mid-1990s groups such as trade unions, religious organizations and immigrant associations implemented integration procedures, with resources mainly provided by the government. Later, local authorities also became involved, particularly municipal and regional governments. Therefore, we may refer to a creative process which transferred integration policy novel practices and recommendations from civil society to government. This “innovative role of the periphery” to use the terminology of Zincone (1998), allows us to conclude that during this period immigrant integration policy was constructed “from the ground up”, with the financial support of the state. As several authors have mentioned “this entrustment changed the position of these partners, vis-à-vis administrative and political authorities and, to a certain extent, may have altered their very nature […] In many cases such organizations have become very financially dependent on public administration funds and this dependence has marked their agenda” (Bruquetas et al. 2008). This statement fully applies to those immigrant associations that indirectly started to center their activity to act as part of the administration in the aim of fostering social integration and became severely dependent of public subsidies.

Since 2004 integration became a key issue in the Spanish immigration policy. The Socialist government that came into office in 2004 established a Spanish integration model based on triennial programs, the first of which was presented in 2007 and the second in 2011. Three basic principles inspire the Spanish model of integration: equality and non-discrimination; the recognition of full social, economic, cultural and political citizenship for immigrants; and ‘interculturalism’ (promoting interaction between people from different origins and cultures, and respecting cultural diversity). The recommendations these programs proposed are essential to understanding the role of immigrant association and their activities in the formulation of immigrant policies. Among the objectives of these programs, participation is of utmost importance. These programs also viewed immigrant participation as a prerequisite for an intercultural society and concentrated on immigrant associations as the most straightforward and efficient channel to achieve this goal. Among its objectives, the programs prioritized the consolidation of the immigrant association movement and promoted the creation of such organizations, devoting a significant part of the budget to this aim. In brief, these programs reinforced a trend that was inherent in the Spanish approach to integration, prioritizing the inclusion of non-official agents in the formulation of integration policies, increasing the role of immigrant associations and the incentives immigrants had to organize themselves in associations that were supposed to have priority access to public funding for the deployment of their interventions (Cachón 2009).

From 2005 onwards, changes in the political landscape and its aims strongly affected the previously described model. The traditional focus on social integration shifted to a new general objective, that of international aid and cooperation with migrant sending countries. As soon as the administrations started to be interested in these two objectives and facilitated access to public funds accordingly, migrant associations started to develop these lines of actions, by strengthening their transnational activities (Cebolla-Boado and López-Sala 2012). Immigration has been a part of the vocabulary of development aid and cooperation in Spain since 2007. In that year, the Annual Cooperation Program (Ministry of Foreign Affairs) detailed specific actions on migration and development, which for the first time were centered on two main purposes: to promote new initiatives that increase the impact of remittances on the development of communities of origin; and, to view migration as a mutually beneficial phenomenon. For that year, the Annual Cooperation Programs mentioned that participation, promotion and leadership of immigrant organizations were considered crucial to achieving several objectives in this area of the Spanish Policy (Østergaard-Nielsen 2011). This expansion of the agenda of immigrant organizations let us to identify a pre-crisis top-down model of integration and transnationalism since integration practices and transnational activism have been boosted in a top-down manner by official policies. In sum, immigrant associations in Spain have assumed a semi-official role on the design and implementation of integration and development public policies. Consequently, immigrant organizations are often co-opted by public administrations, through funding and access to lobbying, as a way to institutionalize the representation of the growing stock of migrants in the country and enhance efficiency.

4 Latin American Immigrant Associations in Times of Economic Crisis: Limited Resources and Changing Realities

The impact that this pre-crisis model had on the development and consolidation of transnational activities were already analyzed in previous stages of this research (Cebolla-Boado and López-Sala 2015). The link between administrations and migrant associations was formalized through interventions directed at providing social and legal assistance to the migrants, as well as some political lobbying for social and economic rights. In this first stage, the well-being of immigrants was the priority of the organizations’ actions, and they focused on the destination country. The most frequent pattern of institutional change for transnational immigrant associations in Madrid was the evolution from a strict civic focus to a development focus. Three reasons explained this renovated interest among civic migrant associations in the field of development: the emergence of co-development during the central years of the last decade as an important issue in the official Spanish agenda, as mentioned previously; a relative maturation of migration inflows that lessened the importance of activities oriented toward newcomers during the economic boom period; and the ambition of organization leaders whose careers pushed them toward politics in their countries of origin. The involvement of civic organizations on development in their countries of origin resulted from the explicit requirements of funding institutions in Spain with whom they were already connected. Their interest in development was not completely exogenous, but the timing of their involvement was highly determined by their access to public resources.

During the first stage of this research we conducted a survey that allowed us to understand how the existing resources were distributed across migrant organizations and how access to these funds affected their profiles. In principle, the pattern was the following: associations had a high degree of formality in 2010 (inscription in the official registers was a requisite for applying to public funds), organizations were on average 10 years old and had a broad type of contacts with administrations at different levels (local, regional and national). Regarding their level of participation in the system of cooptation from the part of the public administrations, a significant degree of segmentation emerged. Fifty percent of the organizations had very limited access to public resources and, also, small budgets (less than 500 euros/month). By contrast, 17 % of them had large budgets (over 10,000 euros/month). The latter group reported to have an easy access to officials and public resources, which they acknowledged, represented the largest share of their own budgets (80–100 %). Our data indicates that the seniority of the organization is a significant determinant of having contacts with officials and therefore of access to public resources. The objective of updating our previous research could be now clearer. The intense economic crisis that Spain is suffering has imposed severe budget cuts in different areas of social spending; making access to public resources not only more challenging, but also more demanding in terms of requisites. Has this reduction in public resources affected the top-down model that prevailed during the period of economic expansion and became a cornerstone of the Spanish integration system? And, has the crisis also affected the transnational activity of migrant associations, which was strongly subsidized?

The current economic recession has not reduced the presence of migrant organizations in those areas where integration policies were defined and their implementation agreed. Yet, the logic of austerity has impacted in a radical manner the public approach to integration and transnational cooperation. As a consequence, organizations have been increasingly unable to access the resources that they received to provide services for immigrants or their co-nationals in origin. For instance, the budget of the National Social Integration Fund was drastically reduced in 2010 and 2011 and cancelled in 2012. The National Social Integration Fund was established in 2004 by the Socialist Government to promote social cohesion and to support the reception, integration and educational development of immigrants. It financed training, employment creation and intercultural mediation programs carried out by non- governmental organizations, immigrant associations, regional governments and municipal councils. According to the Plan de Ciudadanía e Inmigración (PECI), one of the explicit aims of this public fund was to provide tools and specific instruments to migrant organizations in their role as promoters of immigrant integration. The PECI also contributed to stabilize the framework that favored the dialogue between officials, firms, trade unions and NGOs in the definition of the appropriate immigration policy. In 2009 the fund received 200 million Euros. However, during the economic recession, the Ministry of Labor and Social Security eliminated the fund’s entire resource allocation in the 2012 general budget. This suppression has been seen as one of the hardest cuts delivered to public policies for immigrant integration in recent years.

Between 2011 and 2013 the general national budget for immigration and integration was reduced in 58 %. Austerity has also decreased dramatically in other funds aiming at social integration across regions. Cuts in spending have been more intense in those regions where migrants are over-represented such as Madrid, Catalonia or Valencia. International aid and cooperation is also one of the most affected areas by cuts in public spending across different levels of the administration. Between 2010 and 2013 this budget was reduced by 70 %. Accordingly, we developed the expectation that the transnational activities of migrant organizations were undergoing and intense transformation if not suppressed. We also expected mortality among associations to peak as a consequence of the economic crisis.

The economic crisis has also importantly changed the priorities among organizations. In the first quarter of 2014 unemployment reached 36 % among foreigners, 10 % point above the corresponding rate for natives. Logically, the living conditions of many migrant households significantly deteriorated. Migrant organizations reacted to this changing context by becoming providers of welfare and easing return or outmigration for those who had chosen to do so. In fact, the most important Latin American immigrant associations in Spain have coordinated with the Spanish administrations in charge of developing programs for foster the return of migrants to their countries of origin. The list includes Ecuadorian, Colombian or Bolivian organizations such as Rumiñaui, AESCO or ACOBE that were key stakeholders in the first public plans promoting return (López-Sala 2013). Assistance to returnees became not only a new strategic area of intervention for migrant organizations but also, and maybe more importantly, a renewed source of public funds.

5 Data and Methods

Data used in this paper come from an update of the study on organizations which were initially surveyed in 2010. The study collected information from immigrant associations of diverse origins in the Municipality of Madrid. In that survey the selection of immigrant groups was based on three dimensions: size, comparability, and internal diversity. Among Latin Americans, groups selected included Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and the Dominican Republic, which offer diverse histories, migratory sequences and profiles. The selection of association from these four origin countries allowed us to incorporate the study of immigrant communities with long standing presence (Peru and Dominican Republic), but also incorporate the largest and more recent immigrant communities in Spain (Ecuador and Colombia).

The survey sought to sample organizations using a preliminary inventory of national immigrant associations. Various registers were used to build this inventory. First, we examined the association registries provided by the embassies in Spain, the umbrella confederations and the centers for participation and integration of immigrants of the regional government of Madrid (CEPIs). This information was compared with three other formal registers: the National Register of Associations of the Ministry of Home Affairs, the Register of Religious Associations of the Ministry of Justice, and the Non-governmental Organizations Dedicated to Development Register of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation. A breakdown of the associations that had received financing to carry out development projects in their countries of origin was solicited from the local government of the Municipality of Madrid, the regional government of the Community of Madrid, and the Spanish Agency of Cooperation and Development (AECID) of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

A questionnaire was distributed in 2010 to a sample of the associations included in this inventory. The survey conducted in Madrid included 85 associations with significant transnational activities (out of 700 existing). A simple follow up of the survey (Transnational Immigrant Associations Survey [TIAS] 2013) was conducted at the end of 2013 to check whether the organizations existed or continue to have significant activity (of either transnational or local scope), and if they had received any public funds. The follow up was done using an online survey which only 15 % of the initial sample responded. Non-responses were recuperated using alternative means such as direct contacts using emails, telephone and, when available, the organization website. Out of all the initial organizations included in the survey in 2010, Moroccans were excluded from our follow up (7) and 10 organizations, all without websites or Facebook profiles, where unreachable; so attrition in the follow up phase amounted to 15 % of the Latin American organizations.

6 Results of the Transnational Immigrant Associations 2013 Follow-Up

The aim of the follow-up phase of the survey (TIAS 2013) was to explore survival rates after 3 years of an intense economic crisis with significant cuts in public spending. Before exploring this idea, it is necessary to provide a conceptual clarification of what we mean by associations’ survival. Our understanding of survival in this analysis is not strictly speaking coming from having or not received a direct confirmation by the organization leaders of the existence of the association in 2013. The enormous difficulties to get valid answers from the organizations forced us to adopt a more flexible strategy, which transformed our dependent variable into a proxy of significant activity. By significant activity we understand that the organization responded to our contact or, if not, a confirmation of its activity was obtained from announcements of publicly or privately funded projects, their websites or alternative sites on the Internet (including Facebook and Twitter) confirming the existence of meetings, projects or organizational gatherings hold in 2013. In those cases, a dependent variable was constructed taking the value of 1 if activity was observed and 0 when the organizations did not respond to our contact and we did not confirm any activity in 2013. A second dependent variable was further elaborated to distinguish among the valid observations, which measures the organizations access to public funds (1/0). A summary of our descriptive findings is provided in the first Figure (Fig. 9.1). Two thirds (66.3 %) of the surveyed organizations in 2010 had significant activity 3 years after. Out of them, 29.4 % had benefitted from any type of access to public funds.

Fig. 9.1
figure 1

Presence of transnational immigrant associations in the 2013 survey follow-up (Source: TIAS (2013))

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In our follow-up we could also confirm that among the organizations that received public funds in 2010, 54.5 % continued to receive them in 2013, which suggests the cuts in public spending faced in the period under study. By contrast, 80.5 % of those who did not receive public support at the start of the observation period, remained in the same situation in 2013.

A number of hypotheses were formulated to understand organizations’ survival strategies in the context of the top-down model of integration and transnational engagement through immigrant organization as described and contrasted in our previous research (Cebolla-Boado and López-Sala 2015). Specifically, the empirical analysis we present in this chapter corresponds to the fact that after several years of economic crisis and drastic cuts in public spending the Spanish model of immigrant organizations might have transformed. Our analysis of this transformation of immigrants’ organizations in Spain is structured along four hypotheses that are inspired by the path dependence of the top-down model.

  • Resources: more resourceful associations are more likely to survive in 2013. The resources include both private and public funds, but the distinction is relevant since our argument is that the economic context of immigrant organizations created during the economic expansion of Spain in the 2000s fostered dependence from public funds among a large and representative number of associations that could be considered insiders to the Spanish policy of migrant integration. In other words, we expect that access to public funds in the past could increase the likelihood of maintaining a significant activity in 2013.

  • Seniority: in our previous description of the top-down model we detected that seniority was a key element for organizations to have access to public funds. We interpreted this pattern as suggesting that the administration selected more stable counterparts among migrant organizations at the start of the development of the integration policies to legitimize or implement them. As a consequence we expect seniority to increase the likelihood of survival.

  • Contacts at the highest level in origin and destination: having reported access to contacts at the highest level of the Spanish administration (national level) could be a sign of granted temporal stability. By contrast, we expect that contact with the National level administration in origin could have a different effect. Since the purpose of the Spanish administrations was to make use of transnational organizations not only to implement integration policies but also to channel co-development initiatives; and the share of the public budget aimed at International Aid and Development has been one of the most affected chapters by the cuts in public spending, we expect this variable to be an irrelevant predictor of survival.

  • Size: we expect that the larger the organization, the higher probability of survival. Therefore, size of the organization should be a significant predictor of its chances of survival over time. In a context of decreasing funds allocated for migrant organizations and a more intense competition for it, immigrant associations could diversify their funding strategies and evolve towards a more grassroots model of financing their activities. In this case, larger organizations (both by its population of members and/or participants in their activities) could have an easier transition and access to alternative sources of funding.

To test these hypotheses we use Linear Probability Models (LPM, with robust standard errors) for both dependent variables: survival and access to public funds. LPMs were chosen against its most straightforward alternative (logistic regression) because they are easier to interpret. Note, however, that the results we present and discuss hereafter are stable if using the appropriate models for dichotomous dependent variables.

The results of our analyses on the determinants of survival as shown in Table 9.1, only confirm hypothesis 1 (resources). Indeed, although the budget size does not seem to matter significantly, having had access to public funds in 2010 and the share out of the total budget that these funds represented are significant and important determinants of survival 3 years after. In other words, it is not the amount of resources in general that an organization enjoyed in the past that determines its survival, but whether these were public or private funds, which we take as an indication of the status of being an insider organization.

Table 9.1 Coefficients of linear probability models on organizations’ survival from 2010 to 2013
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Surprisingly, organization’s seniority is non-significant. We could interpret this as a sign of how in a context of more competition for scarce resources, the know-how on gaining access to public funds becomes more important than having a brand or a traditional position in the field we analyze. Note however, the sign of the estimate here is negative (something that confirms that older organizations were also more likely to remain active in 2013).

Having contacts at origin or destination is also non significant in our analysis. In our understanding this suggests an important transformation of the top-down model as a consequence of the economic recession. Our assumption was that organizations having had contacts in the past with the national-level administration (above and beyond contacts with the local and regional governments) were more institutionalized and more likely to benefit from the insider status in this top-bottom model. Note again that the sign of both effects is the predicted one (positive).

Finally, it should be remarked that the number of members in the organization or the average number of participants in its events are not significantly associated with survival in 2013 so there are no statistical bases to affirm that organizations adapted to their strategies to a more grass-roots based model.

Since estimates shown in Table 9.1 are not comparable (given their measurement in different units), Fig. 9.2 summarizes the standardized magnitude of their effects. This is also important since the criterion of statistical significance is not very informative in analysis conducted with small samples. The comparison of the effects yields no doubt that access to public funds is the key organizational asset to survival.

Fig. 9.2
figure 2

Summary of standardized predictors on the probability of organizations’ survival (Source: TIAS (2013))

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A rather similar scenario could be described by looking at access to public funds in 2013 (see Table 9.2). Access to resources in 2010 became a key predictor in an even clearer way than in the model on survival. Seniority or contacts behave empirically as in the previous model. Note, however the number of members and participants in the organizational events is not significantly associated with access to public funds, which could reveal that the scarce funds available are being directed to more strategically efficient associations and not necessarily to traditional ones.

Table 9.2 Coefficients of linear probability models on organizations’ access to public funds in 2013
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The summary of these effects using standardized coefficients shows the relative strength of predictors where a strong path dependence from previous access to public funds seems to be the privileged explanation (see Fig. 9.3).

Fig. 9.3
figure 3

Summary of standardized predictors on the probability of access to public funds in 2013 (Source: TIAS (2013))

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7 Concluding Remarks

Austerity and the subsequent cuts in public spending in Spain have dramatically transformed the landscape of immigrant transnationalism, international cooperation and humanitarian aid. These trends in public spending and changes in policy priorities during the current economic crisis negatively impacted the activity of Latin American immigrant associations. The update of our 2010 survey in 2013 (TIAS 2013) (after a number of years of enduring economic recession), allowed us to estimate that 1/3 of these organizations disappeared or has no current activity. We therefore conclude that the rate of mortality reached 30 %; out of them, 29.4 % benefitted in 2010 from access to public funds. We can also confirm that among the organizations that received public funds in 2010, 54.5 % continued to receive them in 2013, which indicates the impact of the cuts in public spending faced in the period 2010–2013. These figures allow describing the context in which Latin American organizations survive and are currently operating in Spain.

The empirical evidence provided suggests that access to public funds, which before the crisis allowed to develop a thick fabric of active transnational organizations, is associated to the pattern of associational mortality in 2013. Better-funded organizations, with more privileged connections to the administrations have more favorable survival rates during the economic crisis. In other words, only those organizations that are considered essential by the administrations have positive prospects in the short run. Organizations with contacts with the administration are precisely the ones that are still represented in the consultative institutions in which immigrant organizations have traditionally participated. As a positive indirect consequence of this complex context and the increasing constraints that organizations face, the level of professionalization and expertise imposed by a more demanding system of access to public funds, will improve the efficacy and efficiency of immigrant transnational organizations in Spain. Of course this will impose a strong centralization of the existing resources, increasing the already existing inequality among organizations. Segmentation of the organizations market is probably increasing and will do so even more in the near future.

At the moment, there are no statistical bases to affirm that organizations adapted their strategies to a more grass-root based model, as in the case of the United States. Access to private funds coming directly from the grassroots of organizations is unlikely to develop in the current scenario. Distinguished organizational leaders report that even though their initial strategy was to shift towards this type of resources, immigrant households, as one the groups that are more severely affected by the economic downturn are currently unable to contribute significantly to their preferred organizational strategies. Further research is needed to unveil if, as soon as the economy stabilizes, immigrants would start to contribute to their organizations, pushing toward the ‘Americanization’ of the traditional ‘top-down’ model of transnational organizations in Spain.