The migration bubble that grew during the last decade of [economic] splendour has suddenly burst, becoming a wave that has triggered a massive exodus of some half a million citizens.

According to a report released on 16 January by the National Statistics Institute (INE), net migration is negative (-50,090) for the first time in ten years, with  62,611 nationals and 445,130 non-nationals leaving in 2011. The main destinations for migrants are Morocco, Ecuador and Bolivia, followed by Brazil, France, Argentina, Germany, the United Kingdom and China.

The conservative daily blames part of Spain’s population decline to a declining birthrate, at 1.4 children per woman -

2011 was also the year that for the first time saw the average age for having a first child go over the barrier of 31.

“We can now regard the myth of the temporary nature of post-accession Polish emigration as refuted. The last census has confirmed that we are dealing with the biggest population loss in postwar history”, notes Krystyna Iglicka, a demographer at Warsaw’s Centre for International Relations.

According to the Catholic weekly, this means that Poland’s migration policy and campaigns encouraging emigrants to return have totally failed. “We are dealing with population and workforce drain and in twenty years’ time we’re going to be the EU’s oldest society, which mass emigration will make a major contribution to”, laments Iglicka.

According to the Federal Statistical Office, in the first half of 2011 the number of Spanish immigrants rose by 49% over the previous year, and the number of Greeks by 84%. In total, 435,000 people arrived in Germany in the first half of this year, up 20% over 2010. In the same period, 30,000 emigrated. “The time when Germany was a country of emigration appears to be over,” concludes Handelsblatt.