Mexicans in Spain

Mexicans in Spain

Total population
14,000 to 16,000
Regions with significant populations
Madrid, Catalonia, Andalusia and Asturias
Languages
Mexican Spanish, Spanish, and a minority of Indigenous Mexican Languages.
Religion
Christianity (predominantly Roman Catholic, with a minority of Protestants), Aztec religion, Maya religion, Judaism, Islam, Atheism, and other religions.
Related ethnic groups
Mexican people, Mestizo, Indigenous people of Mexico, Spanish people, Latin, Hispanic, Latino, and Chicano.

The Mexicans in Spain comprise people who emigrated from Mexico to Spain and their descendants. Mexico, bordered on the north by the United States, was ruled by Spain as a colony for more than three centuries.

Composed primarily of students, professionals, qualified spouses of Spanish nationals, as well as Mexican citizens, in December 2008, the national statistical institute in Spain recorded 14,399 Mexicans within its territory, 7,210 of who were part of the community scheme and had other European Union nationalities or were family members of European citizens. In addition, there are those with dual nationality who are not Spanish and possess foreign identification documents. Spanish and Mexican law both allow dual citizenship, and many Mexicans who have applied are both residents of Spain and grandchildren or the children of Mexican migrants to Spain.

The main destinations of the Mexican community, according to INE data, are the regions of Madrid (4.138 per cent), Catalonia (4.482 per cent) and Andalusia (2.822 per cent). Of the Mexican migrants living in Spain, 61 per cent are women mainly from the Mexican states of Jalisco, Nuevo León, Veracruz, Baja California, Hidalgo, Puebla, Querétaro, Sinaloa, Yucatán, Chihuahua and Chiapas. The typical profile of the Mexican immigrant is a middle-aged individual from the upper-middle class, concentrated in Madrid, Barcelona and Seville. There are many examples of graduate students who have built working relationships and emotional ties that lead to them remaining in Spain.

History

The Moctezuma Palace in Ciudad Rodrigo, Spaniards descendents from Moctezuma II lives here.

The first Spanish-born Mexicans to arrive on their native soil were the children of soldiers in Hernán Cortés army who returned to Seville and Extremadura, and the descendants of Aztec royalty which included the titled Duke of Moctezuma de Tultengo and in Granada, the Counts of Miravalle.

At the end of the sixteenth century, after Mariana de Carvajal married Juan de Toledo Toledo Moctezuma, a descendant of Juan Cano de Saavedra and Isabel de Moctezuma, daughter of the Aztec emperor Moctezuma II, who built his palace in Cáceres with coats of arms incorporating those of the families of Toledo Carvajal as well Moctezuma.

Social status

Mexican migration to Spain differs from that to the United States in many ways.

• Mexican immigrants represent a small proportion of immigrants in Spain (less than half of one percent)
• They have a relatively short history of migration to the Kingdom of Spain, with most arriving since the 1620s
• The vast majority come as legal immigrants^{[citation needed]}

While approximately 1,000 Mexicans enter Spain each year as temporary students or construction contract workers, they are not counted as immigrants because of their explicitly temporary legal status.

See also

• Mexican people

References