Spain's immigrant population reaches 12.3 percent

Spain's immigrant population reaches 12.3 percent
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By h.b. - Sep 7, 2010 - 1:47 PM
The number is double the EU average according to the latest data from Eurostat

Photo EFE

Latest data published by Eurostat shows that Spain has an immigrant population of 12.3%, nearly double the average in the European Union which stands at 6.4%.

On January 1 2009 there were 31.9 foreigners living in the European Union countries, of which 11.9 million were EU residents who had moved to another EU country. On that date there were 5.65 million foreigners living in Spain, of which 2.27 million or 5% of the population were from another EU country.

In absolute numbers Spain is, after Germany, the country which is home to most foreigners. She is followed by the U.K., France and Italy while the countries with the fewest numbers of foreign residents are Bulgaria and Malta.

In percentage terms Luxembourg with 43.5% and Latvia with 17.9% are the countries with most foreigners.

The data also shows that 2 million Romanians, 1.5 million Poles and 1.3 million Italians had chosen to live elsewhere among EU residents, and outside the EU the most numerous were 2.4 million Turks, 1.8 million Moroccans and a million Albanians.

It should be pointed out that many foreigners living in Spain have recently been returning to their countries of origin, as the recession continues to keep unemployment high here in the country.

In Alicante the regional education authority notes that the number of foreign pupils in the province’s schools has fallen by 6.5% over the past two years to now stand just over 38,000.

The census of the 462,974 foreign residents in Alicante shows that 93% of them live along the coastal strip. Only 7% of foreigners chose to live inland in the province.

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