• Government: Pedro Sánchez trusts pensions to a 'hawk' of spending control
  • Social Security: The Escrivá model for pensions: tighten retirement, immigration and rethink private plans

Spain requires the arrival of an average 270,000 immigrants a year until 2050. Something more than 8 million people from other nations in the next three decades that, with their contributions, guarantee pensions and ensure the viability of Social Security.

These are the figures handled by the new Minister of Social Security, José Luis Escrivá, who yesterday presented these data at the first ministerial meeting on Migration and Integration of the OECD and in which it was also the first act since taking possession of his new charge of it last Tuesday. And in that intervention he delved into what he already explained in the Ministry of Labor: that immigration will be one of the pillars of its activity .

In fact, the full name of the portfolio is Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, and not only because immigration is a "humanitarian problem", but also "an opportunity for growth and for the sustainability of the pension system", such and As Escrivá explained this Friday. "Migration contributes to the development and well-being of societies and helps overcome the challenges that weigh on the countries or regions of destination, such as the demographic challenge derived from the aging of the population, " said the former president of the Independent Authority of Fiscal Responsibility (AIReF), who from his former position opted for immigration as a basic pillar for Social Security.

For all these reasons, the Government is promoting an integral vision of the migratory movements, which goes from "the commitment in the fight against the root causes of emigration from the places of origin to the full inclusion of emigrants in Spanish society "he added.

But Escrivá is not, by far, the only one that claims the need to attract foreign labor to save Social Security. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has also done so on a recurring basis, although according to its estimates the figures would be somewhat smaller: " 5.5 million people until 2050, based on the basis that 90% of that migration is found of working age, "the Fund explained already in a 2018 report.

Also the predecessor of Escrivá at the head of the pensions, the Secretary of State, Octavio Granado, showed a similar position when he pointed out that "the arrival of foreigners should be seen as an opportunity to replace the demographic pyramid, to maintain our lifestyle", and analysts of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) have written on numerous occasions on this issue.

Delay the effective retirement age

In that same forum, the Minister of Social Security also pointed out another of the issues that will mark the essential reform required by the system: to bring the effective retirement age to 67 using "the right incentives". In his opinion, the reform of the Government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, which raises the retirement age to those 67 years, " is a perfect starting point, " Efe reports.

It was striking, because it was something that was totally unusual when he was in charge of the AIReF, that he stated openly that, instead, the sustainability factor that includes the reform of Mariano Rajoy is an "error", to later add that he is going to restore the principle that "the purchasing value of pensions is maintained and maintained forever". And finally, and in this case in line with what he already said in the Fiscal Authority, he stressed that the pension situation is "manageable" and that " there is no need to generate concern ."

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  • José Luis Escrivá
  • Social Security
  • Spain
  • Pensions

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