The authors are currently coordinating a three-year researchproject on the changing settlement patterns and ways of life of foreign immigrant populations located in Spanish rural areas. This article offers a wide academic literature review, highlighting those issues that have been most studied and those under-researched or forgotten. Secondly, it approaches the rural areas where thereis a more significant presence of foreign immigrants, offering relevant data and indicating the main sources of information available for their study. Finally, some considerations that may be useful for carrying out future research are suggested.