Immigration to Spain

The population of Spain doubled during the twentieth century due to the spectacular demographic boom in the 1960s and early 1970s. The birth rate then plunged by the 1980s, and Spain's population became stagnant, its demographics showing one of the lowest sub replacement fertility rate in the world, only second to Japan's.Fact|date=February 2007. Many demographers have linked Spain's very low fertility rate to the country's lack of any real family planning policy. Spain is the Western European country that spends the least on family support (0.5% of GDP). A graphic illustration of the enormous social gulf between Spain and the other countries of Europe in this field is the fact that a Spanish family would need to have 57 children to enjoy the same financial support as a family with 3 children in Luxembourg. In emigration/immigration terms and after centuries of net emigration, Spain has recently experienced large-scale immigration for the first time in modern history. According to the Spanish government, there were 4,145,000 foreign residents in Spain in January 2007. Of these, well over half a million were Moroccan while the Ecuadorians figure was around half a million as well. Romanian and Colombian populations amounted to around 300,000 each. There are also a significant number of British (274,000 as of 2006) and German (133,588) citizens, mainly in Alicante, Málaga provinces, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands. Chinese in Spain are estimated to number between 10 to 60,000, and South East Asian groups like the over 50,000 Filipinos whose country the Philippines was a former Spanish possession created a sizable community in Spain. Immigrants from several sub-Saharan African countries have also settled in Spain as contract workers, although they represent only 4.08% of all the foreign residents in the country.

During the early twenty first century, the average year-on-year demographic growth set a new record with its 2003 peak variation of 2.1%, doubling the previous record reached back in the 1960s when a mean year on year growth of 1% was experienced. [ [http://www.la-moncloa.es/NR/rdonlyres/2E85E75E-E2D9-4148-B1DF-950B06696A6C/74823/Chapter_2.PDF Official report on Spanish recent Macroeconomics, including data and comments on immigration] ] This trend is far from being reversed at the present moment and, in 2005 alone, the immigrant population of Spain increased by 700 000 people [Source: "Instituto Nacional de Estadística". Evolution of the foreign population in Spain since 1998 [http://www.ine.es/inebase/cgi/axi?AXIS_PATH=/inebase/temas/t20/e245/p08/l0/&FILE_AXIS=04001.px&CGI_DEFAULT=/inebase/temas/cgi.opt&COMANDO=SELECCION&CGI_URL=/inebase/cgi/] ] .

Currently

From other countries - Africa

From other countries - Asia

From other countries - Oceania

References

* [http://www.teranga.jimdo.com ASESER Teranga: Asociación de Inmigrantes Senegaleses Residentes en A Coruña]