Phenomenon of African migration to Spain: structure, dynamics and trends

The article considers the problems of African immigration to Spain within the period of 2000-2017, namely, its dynamics, latest tendencies, and changes in structure. Primarily, the author focuses on an in-depth analysis of the following main features of immigrant's population in Spain: nationality, gender and age structures, type of entry and level of the legalization of their status. The Strait of Gibraltar is a zone with increased intensity of migration flows where Morocco and Spain are the key points. The irregular migration from Africa to Europe affects on the economy, politics, social and cultural spheres, foreign policy relations, closely intertwine with the problems of economic backwardness and poverty. The relevance of the study is determined by the strategic importance of the Mediterranean, the relationship between countries of which has a great importance for the security balance in the region. The growth of migration flows has become one of the most important problems not only for Spain, but for the EU as a whole, attempting to resolve it within the scope of the European security strategy. It is becoming recognised that immigration resulted from the social, demographic and economic reasons, and the author's research once again confirmed it, so it is necessary to develop bilateral relations between sending and receiving countries both in the socioeconomic and legal spheres, allowing to achieve economic development of these countries and to manage migratory flows at the legislative level.