This report highlights large differences in residential patterns and labour insertion between native citizens and those from citizens from North and Sub-Saharan African countries in Spain.

The article begins with a description of the context of the territorial and occupational distribution of the North and Sub-Saharan African population across Spain in comparison with other continental groups and native Spaniards by gender, and then goes on to analyse the residential and job segregation of that population during the 21st century. Although no causal relationship can be established between economic inequality and segregation, the text notes that the country's North and Sub-Saharan African population undergoes higher levels of segregation related to their poorer working conditions. 

Key findings include:

• The residential segregation of these citizen groups in Spain shows an inertia and stability that contrasts with their labour segregation, which is much more affected by economic context.
• Alternating cycles of economic growth and decline and their impact on the national labour market introduce greater variability to labour segregation.
• A decrease in segregation corresponds with a worsening of the employment situation related to the mass expulsion of workers from sectors where some groups of immigrants were concentrated, construction during the Great Recession (2008-2010) and the ensuing bursting of the housing bubble, and the collapse of the services sector during the peak of COVID-19 (although palliative measures such as ERTE have mitigated the impact on registration).
• For women in this group, job segregation tends to be due to 2 factors: their high concentration in the service sector and in domestic work, and the practice of replacement in domestic work by Spanish workers.
• Other elements that reinforce residential and labour segregation include colonial, paternalistic, and racist narratives and different access to Spanish nationality in comparison with migrants from Latin American countries.