Immigration in Spain is a relatively recent phenomenon and was associated, in 1995-2007, with a period of fast growth, especially in the construction industry, which doubled its share of employment from 6.9% to 11%. Employment in the sector increased from 1.2 m to 2.8 m in that period.
The Spanish labour market achieved flexibility through segmeny to a tation and, notably, the large use of temporary employment contracts covering, in 2007,32% of the workforce. According to date from the Muestra Continua de Vidas Laborales database (social security), in 2007,43% of immigrants had temporary jobs , 14 percentage points more than for Spanish nationals . In construction , this gap is even higher, at 25 percentage points , and temporary contracts for foreigners tend to be of a shorter duration than for Spanish counterparts (data form the Labour Force Survey (LFS)). According
to a Ministry of Labour spokesperson, foreign workers tend to be given temporary contracts because their residence permit is also temporary (EL Pais, 2007), revealing how uncer-tainty is constructed through mutually reinforcing migration and labour market regulations.