Population of major cities in the Colombian Andes. Flag of Colombia in Cartagena. Immigration in Colombia has always been low compared with other countries on the continent, a situation that is due to the same policies inherited from Spanish colonial times, with laws that always discouraged the entry of foreigners into the territory, first of the Viceroyalty of New Granada, and after what would be Colombia. The 1991 Constitution opened the country to greater acceptance of immigrants, both historical discouragement of immigration and the current political situation have resulted in the few groups of immigrants to integrate fully the native population of the country through the assessment of identity, citation needed The main exception is the Syrian and Lebanese community Maicao on the border with Venezuela, where Arab schools, Islam is practiced and is the largest mosque in the country (and one of the largest in Latin America).Immigrant groups Arab World: Has been a major wave of migration to Colombia. Immigrants from the Arab world that the country began arriving in the late nineteenth century from Lebanon, Palestine, Syria and Jordan, of all faiths, including Muslims and Jews, but predominantly Christians. Since these countries were under the Ottoman Empire, the natives began to call these immigrants "Turks". The Arabs were located especially in the North Coast of the country (Barranquilla, Cartagena, Santa Marta, Monteria and Maicao) and slowly began to get too inside, with the exception of the area paisa. The first groups were Maronite Christians, so they found it difficult to integrate a Catholic nation. After 1954, with the creation of Israel and the intensification of conflicts in the Middle East, Colombia saw the arrival of Muslim Arab groups in Palestine which were located in San Andres and Providencia and La Guajira.Jews: Even since the colonial times came many Spanish Jews, Sephardim or Sephardic Jews, were forced by the Spanish Crown to the conversion and then persecuted by the Inquisition, which virtually wiped out by their assimilation of the viceroyalty. Some, however, say no more veracity, that many managed not to assimilate and staying endogamous, hiding his lineage and identity, especially in the region paisa. It would only toward the end of the nineteenth century Jews would return to Colombia from other parts of the world including the Arab world including Palestine (Mizrahi Jews) but predominantement Eastern European Jews (Ashkenazi Jews), which were located especially in Barranquilla, Medellin, Bogota and Cali. In the same way as Valledupar Caribbean populations. Terry McAuliffe Gypsies came from colonial times, sometimes forced by the Spanish to embark for America.At the end of World War I kumpanias came from Eastern Europe and the Balkans, of the disintegrating Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman Empires. Other groups arrived during World War II from France and other countries invaded by the Nazis, who persecuted Gypsies and Jews. Spanish: The vast majority of these immigrants are specific to culture and the Castilian tongue. Following the colonial period these revenues have taken place in stages at various moments of the twentieth century. Thus, there was greater penetration during the "Franco's Spain and during the Second World War. Italian: Nowadays in Colombia represent immigrant population, mainly in Caribbean cities such as Cartagena and Barranquilla and Santa Marta lesser extent, as Dutchmen. From the seventeenth century is the arrival of Italians to the maritime ports as Cartagena and Santa Marta, and some waterways as Mompos. Agustin Codazzi was one among them said. Also in Barranquilla industries began in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.Shoes, jewelry, beverages, among others, were his great work. Other doctors, essayists, and others, have their past histories in southern Caribbean coast and its harbors. German: Also in the nineteenth century Germans came to the department of Santander especially in the municipality of Zapatoca, encouraged by the pioneering Geo von Lengerke it exploded quinine trade with Europe. After the First World War and more with World War II, groups of German Jews would come to that in 1939 the government issued a decree prohibiting his entry. Many residents of the Coffee and Antioquia, and southern Caribbean coast descended from them. Other groups: On the other immigrant groups there is less information due to their lower presence and its rapid assimilation into Colombian society.