This paper builds on research developed in the European project Migrant Children and Communities in a Transforming Europe (MiCREATE). HORIZON2020 -822664. Historically, Spain has been a country of emigrants. However, in recent years this situation changed drastically, facing the country and its institutions and services with unprecedented challenges. Above all to the educational system. In 1975 the percentage of immigrants was 0.46%. A percentage steadily growing, at the rate of the dynamism of the economy that reached a peak in 2011 of 12,2%. This was a mostly economic migration, characterized by being a low-skilled workforce resulting essential to maintain current levels of production and development (Alonso & Furio-Blasco, 2007). According to data provided by the Instituto National de Estadística (INE 2011 y 2017), in 2017, 38.9% of the immigrant population came for European Union countries; 22.7% from Africa; 17,3% from South America; 9,2% from Asia; 5.7% from Europe (No EU); 4.8% from Central America and Caribbean; 1.3% from North America and 1.0% from Oceania. This phenomenon has had direct consequences on demographics (Arjona & Checa, 2009), but especially in affected to school’s population. In Catalonia, which was the region where more immigrants arrived, the number of immigrants in classrooms increased from 0.58% in 1999 to 12.5% in 2008. Taking into account this situation, in this paper we explore the political, social and educational consequences of this massive arriving of immigrants with its tensions and possibilities. The main data-sources used in this text are policy-documents, articles and reports, particularly from the 1992-2011. We also developed research on young immigrants’ professional trajectories (Sancho-Gil, et al., 2012). All that to give an account of how policy-makers, academics and teachers, communities and social initiatives respond, react and adapt their values, pre-conceptions and practices to a situation, which puts into question what should be taught and how learning takes place when dealing with people with different cultural, linguistic and religious backgrounds. I immigrants are often considered a problem but could be an opportunity to rethinking schooling and develop a more comprehensive curriculum (Hernández-Hernández & Sancho-Gil, 2018).

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