Immigration History in Spain

Spain is considered by some, including around 10% of the Spanish population according to the latest surveys, to be a group of nations unified under a single State, much like Belgium, Switzerland or the United Kingdom. Despite this, the common history, the common features of the country and the policy of many Spanish governments has fostered a "Spanish nationhood", which shapes its image in the rest of the world.

The Spanish Constitution of 1978, in its second article, recognizes historic entities ("nationalities", not "nations") and regions, inside the unity of the Spanish nation.

But Spain's identity is sometimes, in fact, an overlap of different national identities, some of them even conflicting.

Castile is considered to be by many the "core" of Spain. However, this may just be a reflection of the fact that the Castilian national identity was the first one to be quashed by the Spanish Empire in the revolt of the Communards (comuneros). Today, Castilians generally consider themselves to be Spanish first, with regional identity being of lesser importance.

The opposite is the case of some Galicians, Catalans and Basques, who quite frequently identify primarily with Galicia, Catalonia and the Basque Country first, with Spain only second, or even third, after Europe. For example, according to the last CIS survey, 25% of Basques identify themselves only as Basques; 16.8% of Catalans do so with their autonomous community, and 7% Galicians with Galicia.

The situation is even more confusing, since there are regions with ambiguous identities, like Navarre, Valencia, the Balearic Islands, the Canary Islands, etc. There has been a lot of internal migration (rural exodus) from regions like Galicia, Andalusia and Extremadura to Madrid, Catalonia, Basque Country and the islands.

Spain was the first European country to become a unified nation, with the union of Castile and Aragon) in 1492 and the annexation of Navarre in 1515. Until 1714, Spain was a loose confederation of kingdoms and statelets under one king, until King Philip V removed the autonomous status of the Aragonese crown. Navarre and the Basque Country, however, kept a high degree of autonomy within their legal and financial system (Fueros). Moreover, the creation of a unified state in the 19th and 20th centuries has led to the present situation, which is apparently simple, but sometimes extremely confusing. During the Second Spanish Republic (1931–1936), Catalonia and the Basque country were given limited self-government, which was lost after the Spanish Civil War (1936–1939) and restored in 1978 during the transition to democracy.

Survey of the latest CIS (Centro de Investigaciones Sociológicas) survey from which concrete data of this article have been extracted

Since the 16th century, the most important minority group in the country have been the Gitanos. Other historical minorities are Mercheros (or Quinquis) and Vaqueiros de alzada. The latter, meaning "Mountain cow-breeders" dwell in mountain ranges in the Principality of Asturias and have kept historically apart from the valley dwellers.

The number of immigrants or foreign residents has tripled to 3.69 million in less than five years, according the latest figures (2005) of National Statics Institute. They currently make up around 8.4 percent of the total population. The rise of population in Spain in recent years was largely due to them. Nearly half of all immigrants have neither residence nor work permits.

The largest foreign minorities are Moroccans (365 846), Equadorians (202 294), Colombians (128 367) and British (121 107), followed by other nationalities, as Argentinians, Filipinos, Germans etc.