[LINK] Immigration in Spain

[rfmcdonald]

From El Pais via the International Herald Tribune:

IMMIGRATION HAS had a radical impact on the demographic growth of Spain, a country whose zero natural population growth had been pushing it toward old age. If matters had been left to the Spaniards themselves, nothing would have changed. But the arrival of foreigners has changed the situation completely, to such an extent that Spain now has the fourth highest percentage of immigrants in relation to the native population after Germany, Austria, and Belgium - all traditional magnets for immigration - and is even ahead of France. At a global level, this phenomenon is positive, if only because of its impact on economic growth. At the same time, however, imaginative policies will be required if the new arrivals are to have access to health, housing, and above all, education.

According to the latest figures from the National Statistics Institute (INE), Spain's population has now passed 44 million, a figure that until recently was not expected to be reached until 2025. The increase is overwhelmingly due to the arrival of immigrants, whose numbers have risen seven-fold over the last decade. The tendency has been reflected as well in the adoption of overseas children, whose numbers rose 40 percent in 2004. By the beginning of 2005, some 3.7 million foreigners were registered as living in Spain, representing 8.4 percent of the population. This figure is likely to rise considerably by the end of the year once hundreds of thousands of people who have recently applied for legal status as part of a three-month government campaign will have received their working papers.