This is The Guardian.

Today, has immigration turbocharged Spain's economy.

I first arrived in Madrid in 2011, and so it was really at the tail end of the economic crisis here.

Ashifa Kasam is the Guardian's European Community Affairs correspondent, and she moved to Spain at a very different time.

Madrid in particular was really reeling from that economic crisis. So lots of shops were

boarded up. Restaurants were kind of half empty on a good night. People, all they talked about

was la crisis, la crisis. They couldn't see a way out. There was just no light at the end of that tunnel.

14 years on, her adopted home country is a place transformed. And now in 2025, it feels like a very

different place. There's all these young people that have used the opportunity of the crisis

or the kind of the lack of jobs in the crisis

to start interesting businesses and to kind of launch themselves into innovation.

There are, you know, these cafes that are popping up everywhere that charge incredibly

high amounts for coffee and that are always packed.

There's lineups outside restaurants.

There's just a buzz to the city that wasn't

there before. Spain has become Europe's fastest growing economy. Last year, the economist named it

the world's best. And one reason for this is immigration. Spain's socialist prime minister wants

immigration. He says the country needs it. Across Europe, the challenges are the same.

Plunging birth rates, increasing life expectancies and faltering economies. But while most

countries are closing their doors, Spain is going in the opposite direction.

From The Guardian, I'm Helen Pid. Today in Focus. Can Spain make immigration a vote winner?

Ashifa, welcome back to Today in Focus. It sounds like a very exciting time to be living in Spain.

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