Immigration and its Effects on Demographic Change in Spain

Abstract

The question we attempt to answer in our paper is, Does immigration have an impact on demographic change in Spain? We chose Spain for our analysis for a number of reasons, but the two most important are, the significant in- crease in the immigration population in Spain, especially in the past decade, and the complexities involved in finding an answer to our research question would be overwhelming if two or more nations were to be examined. So a case study seemed a reasonable alternative. Our analysis involves examining fertility, mortality, and population growth between immigrants, non-immigrants, and the total Spanish population over time. In a second analysis we use a simple difference equation in evaluating the direct im- pact of immigration on population change in Spain. Our findings suggest, for the period covered in our study, that immi- grants have had and are having a significant impact on demographic change in Spain.