A common sight, an evening in Manchester and a large group of young Spanish people are huddled in the warmth of a city bar exchanging streams of rapid conversation, unintelligible to those around them. They seem happy, they seem animated, but what are they talking about? What do they think of our city? Why are there so many Spanish people living in Manchester?

In the last 12 months, the numbers of Spanish migrants arriving to the UK increased by 50% as Spain’s youth unemployment rate grew to over 60%. I spoke to four young people who have left Spain for Manchester to understand their lives here in our city.