ABSTRACT
International migration flows to Spain have been intense in the last fifteen years. While at the start of the 1990s, the share of foreigners with respect to the total population was barely 1.5 per cent, by 2000 it was 2.3 per cent, and by 2009 it was 12 per cent. The Spanish immigrant population’s rate of increase has been remarkable compared to other countries as well (Cebolla & González-Ferrer 2008: 12). While in 1990, Spain was not even among the twenty countries in the world with the highest immigration rates, by 2005 it was already tenth in the ranking (in absolute figures).
