Immigration to Spain has increased rapidly over the last few years, one of the most obvious reasons being its proximity to North-Africa. One indicator of this increase is the number of petitions entered for a residence permit. The total of these petitions in 1999 reached about 95,000, doubling that of 1998 By the end of 2000 this number will have doubled again, or even tripled. However, the proportion of foreign people living in Spain is barely 2%, not much at all compared with 6% in France and 9% in Germany.
Immigration is not going away, and many people think it shouldn't. Apart from the evident fruits that multiculturalism and cultural exchange bear, apart from the just as obvious call for solidarity with people leaving their countries in search of a better life, and apart from the fact that immigration to Europe has become inevitable, there are some pragmatic reasons to welcome non-EU citizens within our borders. Europe's demographic situation is one of them. Our population is growing slowly and ageing rapidly. Several studies indicate that if this pattern does not change, within five years time we will have difficulty providing the elderly with their well-deserved (and just as keenly-anticipated) pensions. The active population working to pay for those pensions will be unable to keep up with the ever growing group of retired people unless immigration counters this demographic trend, it is argued.
