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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
World
Ashifa Kassam European community affairs correspondent

How Spain’s radically different approach to migration helped its economy soar

A busy Barcelona street at night
A record 94 million tourists visited Spain in 2024. Photograph: Kumar Sriskandan/Alamy

From Madrid to Barcelona, restaurants and bars are brimming with people, and reservations have become essential for everything from fine dining to high-end hotels.

It’s a glimpse of how Spain has become Europe’s buzziest economy – named the world’s best by the Economist in 2024 – fuelled in part by what analysts have described as the government’s strikingly different approach to migration.

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