Immigration To Spain

Immigration to Spain increased significantly at the beginning of the 21st century. In 1998, immigrants accounted for 1.6% of the population, and by 2009, that number had risen to over 12%. Until 2014, the number of immigrants decreased due to the economic crisis, but since 2015, immigration to Spain has been on the rise, especially after 2021, reaching 19.32% of the population today.

As of 2025, there were 9,379,972 foreign-born people in Spain, making up to 19.11% of the population, including 5,308,314 (11.14%) born in a non-European country. Of these 6,852,348 (13.96%) did not have Spanish citizenship. This makes Spain the
4th country in Europe by immigration numbers and the 10th worldwide. Spain attracts significant immigration from Latin America and Eastern Europe. The fastest-growing immigrant groups in 2017 were Venezuelans, Colombians, Italians, Ukrainians, and Argentines.

During the early 21st 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 in the 1960s when a mean year-on-year growth of 1% was experienced. In 2005 alone, the immigrant population of Spain increased by 700,000 people.

Spain accepted 478,990 new immigrant residents in just the first six months of 2022 alone. During these months, 220,443 people also emigrated from Spain, leaving a record-breaking net migration figure of 258,547. More women than men chose to move to Spain during 2022; this is due to higher rates of emigration from Latin America.

Currently

According to the United Nations, there were 5,947,106 immigrants in Spain in early 2018, 12.8% of the population of Spain. According to the Spanish government, there were 5.6 million foreign residents in Spain in 2010; independent estimates put the figure 14% of total population (Red Cross, World Disasters Report 2006). According to the official 2011 census data, almost 800,000 were Romanian, 774,000 were Moroccan, 317,000 were Ecuadorian, 312,000 were British and 250,000 were Colombia

Other important foreign communities are Bolivian (4.1%), German (3.4%), Italian (3.1%), Bulgarian (2.9%), Chinese (2.6%) and Argentine (2.5%). In 2005, a regularization programme increased the legal immigrant population by 700,000 people. Since 2000, Spain has experienced high population growth as a result of immigration flows, despite a birth rate that is only half of the replacement level.

According to Eurostat, in 2010, there were 6.4 million foreign-born residents in Spain, corresponding to 14.0% of the total population. Of these, 4.1 million (8.9%) were born outside the EU and 2.3 million (5.1%) were born in another EU Member State.6.5% of the EU population are foreigners and 9.4% are born abroad
, Eurostat, Katya VASILEVA, 34/2011.

As of 2005 Spain had the second highest immigration rates within the EU, just after Cyprus, and the second highest absolute net migration in the World (after the USA).

Over 920,000 immigrants arrived in Spain during 2007, in addition to 802,971 in 2006, 682,711 in 2005, and 645,844 in 2004.

For nationalities outside of this category, in order to stay in Spain for more than 3 months, a residence card, residence visa or work permit is required.

Two distinct groups can be identified: those immigrants (mostly in working age) originating from countries mostly located in Eastern Europe, South America or Africa, with lower purchasing power than Spain, comprising most of the immigrating population, and those (of whom many are retired) originating from northern European or other western countries with a higher GDP per capita than Spain.

Immigrants from Europe

Immigrants from Europe make up a growing proportion of immigrants in Spain. The main countries of origin are Romania, the United Kingdom, Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria.

The British authorities estimate that the real population of British citizens living in Spain is much bigger than Spanish official figures suggest, establishing them at about 1,000,000, about 800,000 being permanent residents. Of these, according to the BBC and contrary to popular belief, only about 21.5% are over the age of 65.

In fact, according to the ''Financial Times'', Spain is the most favoured destination for West Europeans considering to move from their own country elsewhere in the EU.

Social attitudes to immigration

Unlike other countries in the EU, Spain has not recorded any relevant anti-immigration about until fairly recently. According to some analysts, the causes behind this are multiple. Drawing from the experience of many Spaniards during the 1960s and then again in the beginning of the 21st century when the crisis struck the country, there may be also a collective understanding that hardships force people to seek work abroad.

A January 2004 survey by Spanish newspaper ''El País'' showed that the "majority" of Spaniards believe immigration was too high. Small parties, such as Movimiento Social Español, openly campaign using nationalist or anti-immigrant rhetoric as do other small far-right parties such as National Democracy (Spain) and España 2000. These parties have never won national or regional parliamentary seats. However, while the far-right political party Vox has gained headlines for favouring tough stance against immigration, commentators have suggested that this has not translated into electoral success for them.

According to an October 2024 survey for the ''El País'' newspaper and Cadena SER radio station, 57% of Spaniards believe there is "too much" immigration to Spain.

Immigration by country of origin

Population by country of birth as of 31 December 2024:

Recent trends

Major immigration

This chart shows the numbers and difference of foreign nationals in Spain after 2000. European Union member states are indicated with the EU flag in regional European sub-divisions. The number of Latin American immigrants decreased massively after 2009 mostly due to the naturalization of hundreds of thousands of these citizens who achieved the Spanish citizenship and therefore do not count as immigrants anymore on the official statistics. See the chart from below from the "Naturalizations" paragraph for further information.

From other countries

Europe

European Union member states are indicated with the EU flag in regional European sub-divisions.

Africa

* Source

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Central America

North America

Asia

Oceania

Comparison with other countries from European Union

According to Eurostat 47.3 million people lived in the European Union in 2010 who were born outside their resident country. This corresponds to 9.4% of the total EU population. Of these, 31.4 million (6.3%) were born outside the EU and 16.0 million (3.2%) were born in another EU member state. The largest absolute numbers of people born outside the EU were in Germany (6.4 million), France (5.1 million), the United Kingdom (4.7 million), Spain (4.1 million), Italy (3.2 million), and the Netherlands (1.4 million).

Irregular migration

The concept of an "irregular", "undocumented", or "illegal" migrant did not become meaningful in Spain's social imagination until the passing of the in 1985, a year before 1986 enlargement of the European Communities, Spain's entry into the European Communities.

Even though the main paths for the entry of clandestine migration have traditionally been airports and land borders, the sea route has proven to have a "profound impact at the social level" owing to qualitative, rather than quantitative, reasons.

Regarding the governance of the migration of Sub-Saharan people from Morocco (and Western Sahara) into Spain (which include crossings into the autonomous cities of Ceuta and Melilla, as well as a sea route to the Canary Islands), the Moroccan and Spanish authorities follow necropolitical forms of border control which are complemented with the favouring of the idea of "advancing borders" by reaching deals with origin or transit countries such as Guinea Conakry, Mali, Ivory Coast, and Gambia.

On 9 October 2024, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez urged the European Parliament to speed up the implementation of the New Pact on Migration and Asylum to alleviate the migration crisis in the Canary Islands, which had seen the illegal arrival of a record number of 46,843 migrants, mostly from Senegal, Mali and Morocco (up from 39,910 in 2023). Sánchez tried to push through a law that would introduce mandatory distribution of migrants among Spanish regions in order to alleviate pressure in the Canary Islands.

The Sánchez government planned to legalize around 900,000 undocumented migrants by 2027.

Naturalizations

From 2005 to 2022 alone, more than 2.2 million foreigners were granted Spanish citizenship through naturalization.

Since the end of the 20th century the number of foreigners who have obtained Spanish nationality has grown steadily, as Spain has been the EU country with the biggest number of approved naturalizations since 2010 until 2015. 1 out of 4 naturalizations made in the European Union in 2014 were belonging to Spain. Most of these naturalizations went to citizens coming from Latin America (which explains the massive decrease of these citizens counting as immigrants in Spain) mainly from Colombia, Ecuador and Peru, although Morocco was amongst the top 3 as well. After 4 years being the first, Spain dropped to the 3rd position in 2015 due to the stricter laws to naturalize citizens. Still, 114.351 foreigners became Spanish citizens in 2015, the majority being Latin Americans.

Immigration detention

Crime rates

See also

* Opposition to immigration
* Remigration
* Demographics of Spain
* Immigration to Europe
* Spanish nationality law
* List of countries by immigrant population
* List of sovereign states and dependent territories by fertility rate

References

External links

ASESER Teranga: Asociación de Inmigrantes Senegaleses Residentes en A Coruña

{{Commons category, Immigration in Spain

Demographics of Spain
Ethnic groups in Spain