Between 2019 and 2024, the foreign-born working-age population (15-64) in the four main Eurozone economies grew rapidly: +6.9% in Italy, +7.3% in France, +14.2% in Germany and above all +33.0% in Spain. This growth was underpinned by the arrival of people from Ukraine – especially in Germany, by African and Asian immigration in most European countries, and by Latin American immigration in Spain.

From an economic standpoint, immigration in developed countries is likely to increase the labour supply and ultimately stimulate growth. Indeed, migration dynamics have largely buoyed up employment since 2019 in three of the main European economies. Between 2019 and 2024, while employment declined by 0.3% in Germany, workers born outside the European Union helped to stem this fall, making a positive contribution of +3.0 points to the overall trend (compared with a contribution of -2.7 points for those born in Germany and -0.6 points for those born in another EU country). In Spain, employment increased by 8.9%, with three-quarters of this increase attributable to people born abroad. In Italy, the rise was 3.0%, with immigrants contributing +1.7 points. France stands out from its neighbours in that the 5.3% increase in total employment since 2019 has been primarily due to people born in the country (+3.8 points), with immigrant employment accounting for more than a quarter of net job creations. In France, most of the increase in employment among foreign-born people has been driven by women, unlike in other European countries. In addition, most of these jobs are filled by higher education graduates and concerns skilled jobs more than elsewhere in Europe...