In this paper, we explore the relative weight of economic and political factors in the selection of workers to leave Spain under Francoist rule. Using the well-known exit-voice-loyalty framework by Albert O. Hirschman, we test for the two safety valves often identified in this literature: the economic and the security safety valve. We use data on assisted emigration through the Instituto Español de Emigración (Spanish Emigration Institute) during the 1960s, historical secondary research, and interviews to returnees to study whether workers were selected from geographic provinces of high unemployment (economic safety valve) and/or high political conflict (security safety valve) or both. While we do find suggestive evidence of the first safety valve shaping the screening of applications, the regime appears to have prevented the recruitment from provinces of high political conflict for fear of a politicized diaspora contaminating temporary labour emigration and challenging the regime from abroad. Concerns about the survival of the regime appear to have played a role, at least in crafting the emigration outflow that the regime could control.