Spain's per capita income would have shrunk in the last decade had it not been for the arrival of an unprecedented number of immigrants, one of Spain's main savings banks said on Monday.
In a report released as illegal immigration has become one of Spain's hottest political issues, Caixa Catalunya said per capita gross domestic product would have fallen by 0.6 percent a year over the last decade without immigration.
Spain's per capita GDP grew by 2.6 percent a year from 1995 to 2005, a period when the country's population grew by 10.7 percent between 1995 and 2005 compared to a eurozone average of 4.4 percent. More than three quarters of the population growth came from immigration.
Polls show a growing number of Spaniards regard immigration as a problem and the government has scrambled ineffectually to stop a flow of Africans arriving by boat in the Canary Islands.
But the overwhelming majority of migrants arrive here legally, mostly from neighbouring Morocco and from South American countries like Ecuador and Peru.
They form a ready pool of cheap labour in the construction and agriculture sectors and increasingly fill vacancies in bars and nursing homes that are shunned by many Spaniards.
The influx has provided Spanish businesses with 4.2 million more consumers and most are of active working age, improving the likelihood they will find work and pay taxes.
The wave of immigration also includes hundreds of thousands of wealthy Europeans - particularly British - who have moved to coastal areas and have provided a spur to Spain's booming housing market.
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