Proceedings of the International scientific and practical conference ―Science in the Modern World‖ (May 4-6, 2026) / Publisher website: www.naukainfo.com. – Barcelona, Spain, 2026. - 260 p.

95 France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Germany, as well as, to a lesser extent, to Latin American countries including Argentina, Chile, and Mexico. Since the late 1990s, however, a sustained immigration trend has emerged, transforming Spain into one of the key migration hubs in Europe. The period between 1998 and 2012 was marked by a particularly rapid increase in immigration inflows. This process can be analytically divided into several major phases. The first phase, beginning in the late 1990s, was characterized by the arrival of migrants predominantly from Morocco. Although Moroccan migration has remained continuous, its relative share has declined since the 2010s due to the diversification of migrant origins. The second phase involved a significant inflow of migrants from Latin America, particularly from Bolivia, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, with smaller numbers arriving from Chile and Argentina. This wave intensified in the early 2000s. The third phase, emerging after 2004–2005, was associated with migration from Eastern Europe, especially Romania, following the extension of European mobility rights. In subsequent years, Romanian nationals became the largest foreign population group in Spain, surpassing both Moroccan and Latin American communities in absolute terms. As a result of these processes, Spain has become one of the European countries with the highest shares of foreign-born population relative to its total population. This transformation can be explained by a combination of three structural factors: sustained economic growth, demographic ageing, and the institutional liberalization of migration policy [2]. Consequently, migration has evolved from an external phenomenon into a systemic component of national development. Empirical evidence confirms the persistently high level of immigration. According to the Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), net migration increased by more than 626,000 people in 2024 and by 642,000 in 2023, representing some of the highest figures recorded in the past decade [5].