The study by the French National Institute of Statistics revealed that the number of Spanish immigrants increased from 5,300 in 2009 to 11,000 in 2012, for an increment of 107 percent.

France received 201,460 foreign immigrants in 2004, while in 2012 the number rose to 229,000, out of which 5 percent were Spaniards.

According to the data, European countries with the highest number of immigrants to France in 2012 were Portugal (8 percent), United Kingdom (5 percent), Spain (5 percent), Italy (4 percent), Germany (4 percent), Romania (3 percent) and Belgium (3 percent).

Between 2009 and 2012, the number of European immigrants coming to France progressed at a rate of 12 percent per year, while that of Africans increased by 1 percent and were 30 percent of the total.

Three African countries from which France received the most people were Morocco (7 percent), Algeria (7 percent), and Tunisia (3 percent).

With 3 percent from China and 2 percent from Turkey, Asia represented a total of 14 percent of immigrants to France.

The Americas and Oceania constituted a total of 10 percent, including 2 percent from the United States and the same percentage from Brazil.

In early 2013, there were 5.8 million immigrants in France making up 8.8 percent of the population, 800,000 more than in 2004.

Herald Tribune/Latin American