Multicultural Spain
It goes without saying that there is a sizeable Russian community in
Marbella. You only have to take a walk along the front line of
Puerto Banús on a Saturday morning to hear a wave of Russian accents floating through the air.
Marbella residents will also know that Spain’s largest Russian Orthodox Church is being built in town, while roadside adverts in the Cyrillic alphabet are steadily increasing in numbers. Russian newspapers, magazines, radio stations and TV stations have also sprung up locally and a number of Russian staff now man the counters at
Marbella’s El Corte Inglés, to help with the increased demand from Russian clients. There is even a Russian film festival now in the glamorous Andalusian town!
So it will come as no surprise that
Marbella was named ‘Little Russia’ in a recent online news article. The Local said that last year Russians overtook the Germans to become the second biggest group of foreign property buyers in the
Costa del Sol town after the British. With that in mind, what other Spanish towns are home to large foreign populations?
Rota: Little America
This village is home to a US naval base that houses 20,000 people, most of them soldiers and their families.
Fuengirola: Little Finland
Around 10,000 Finns live here, making it the largest ‘colony’ outside of Finland.
Raval (a neighbourhood of Barcelona): Little Pakistan
The Catalan capital is home to 23,000 Pakistanis – 7,000 of which live in Raval.
L'Alfàs del Pi: Little Norway
This town near Alicante has 10,000 Norwegians, the largest number outside of the country.
Mallorca: Little Germany
The island is home to around 30,000 Germans, with hundreds of thousands more coming on holiday every year.
Usera (Madrid): Little China
Spain’s Chinatown is in the Usera neighbourhood of Madrid, with some 4,000 Chinese people registered at the local town hall.
Benidorm: Little Britain
Around seven percent of the town’s 70,000 population are British, with many more spending the winter here.
Barcelona: Little France
Some 35,000 French residents are registered as living in Barcelona - earning it the title of Petit Paris.
To read the article in full visit the Local’s
website
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