Foreign immigration is a very recent phenomenon in Spain. Over the last fewyears, and especially since 2001, there has been strong growth in the number of non-EUimmigrants changing the historical characterisation of Spain as a country of emigration,above all in the 1960s and 1970s. As in other countries with a high degree of foreignpopulation, one of the principal consequences has been the transformation of the socialstructure, with a special focus on the larger cities. In this way, the main metropolises(Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla, Malaga, Bilbao and Zaragoza) have been theprincipal areas for the settlement of those migration waves. Between 1999 and 2005,these metropolises have absorbed some 45% of the 3,000,000 immigrants who havearrived in Spain.This phenomenon has led to these metropolises becoming more diverse over a shorttime, generating different kinds of problems relating to housing and the residentialsegregation of such immigrants. This paper seeks to analyse the immigrants’ settlementin the main metropolitan areas of Spain and identify the main territorial effects. In orderto do this, the paper will focus on the immigrants’ settlement in the metropolitan systemand the function of central city and the metropolitan cities upon the spatial residentialdistribution of the immigrants. In order to isolate the recent evolution, the analysis willbe restricted to the period 2001-2005.

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