MADRID - Government and private-sector economists agree that immigrants, who now represent 10 percent of Spain's population, have played a decisive role in boosting growth and productivity in the Iberian nation.
Although the research departments of the leading organizations disagree on what immigration has contributed to economic growth, all of them say that without foreign workers the increase in the gross domestic product, or GDP, would have been substantially lower.
The economic office of the prime minister said half the GDP growth in the past five years was attributable to immigration, while the Bank of Spain puts the figure at 25 percent.
What is clear is that Spain began the transition to democracy 30 years ago with a deep economic crisis and some 150,000 immigrants, while today the economy is growing at more than 4 percent and the number of foreigners exceeds the 4 million level.
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