Mobility of ‘the defeated’: internal migration and social advancement in a post-civil war society

Abstract

The article examines the relationship between the movement across space and social mobility by analyzing the conditions for internal migration in Spain during the years of the Franco regime. Specifically it reflects on the ways in which migration from the countryside into self-constructed shantytowns in the greater Madrid area was perceived by migrants themselves, and on the strategies that enabled migration to be carried through. By focusing on the challenges that internal migration posed to the spatial practices and mobility regimes of the dictatorship, the article also explores the relationship between spatial movement, social mobility and political repression within the context of a nationalist dictatorship.

Keywords:

• Spain
• spatial movement
• mobility
• internal migration
• Franco regime
• shantytowns
• Orcasitas

Notes

1. In the case of migration to other Spanish cities see: Borderías (1993), Burbano Trimiño (2013), Bustillo Merino (2005), Cid Fernandez, Dominguez Alberte, and Soutelo Vazquez (2008).

2. BOE Presidencia del Gobierno. Decreto de 12 de diciembre de 1958 por el que se crea una Comisión Interministerial para estudiar y proponer los núcleos urbanos de descongestión de Madrid y demás comarcas de inmigración interna.

3. Archivo Regional de Madrid, Fondo: Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Signatura 216927/2, fichas 2024-2032; Signatura 219475(1), fichas 905; Signatura 219402 (1), ficha 285; Signatura 19408 (2), ficha 486-489 & 1123.

4. Archivo Regional de Madrid, Fondo: Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Signatura 217,301 (1), ficha 1248-1250.

5. Archivo Regional de Madrid, Fondo: Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Signatura 217,301 (1), ficha 1215-1249.

6. Archivo Regional de Madrid, Fondo: Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Signatura 219451(1), ficha 1252-1267.

7. Archivo Regional de Madrid, Fondo: Instituto Nacional de la Vivienda, Signatura 216942(2), ficha 1679-1700.

8. Felicitas Agudo Gonzalez, Interview with the author. 3 February 2011. Orcasitas.

9. Daniel Solano Sùjer, Interview with the author. 17 March 2011. Orcasitas.