Barcelona - Pakistani "capital" of Spain

Sometimes after a long day, like today, I don't feel like cooking dinner nor am I hungry enough to go out to eat. In this situation I sometimes pop down to the Pakistani owned convenience store next to my apartment building to pick up a couple or three of the large, generously stuffed homemade samosas on offer there for 75 cents a piece. Mmm, delicious! This little convenience store is one of several owned by Pakistanis in my neighborhood -- indeed, throughout Barcelona.

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My first contact with such a business occurred not long after moving to Barcelona. It happened one Sunday when I was looking for a convenience store because here, as in all of Spain, larger stores are not allowed to open on 'the day of rest.' So, I stopped a policeman on the street to ask if he knew a place that was open where I could buy bread and milk. I can still hear his reply, "Quieres decir un Pakistani?" (Do you mean to say a Pakistani?)

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I wasn't sure what that meant, but I replied something to the effect that, if that's what he called a convenience store with Sunday hours, then, yes. It turned out to be exactly how locals refer to such shops and my first introduction to Barcelona's large, thriving Pakistani community.
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After living here a bit I began to sense that Barcelona probably had the highest concentration of Pakistani immigrants in all of Spain, consisting mostly of men, many of whom seemed to come from the Punjab. Recently I discovered a couple of interesting reports that actually confirm these perceptions: Multiculturalism and Health and Immigration, Education and the Labour Market. For example, the first one states that 95% of Pakistanis in Barcelona are male and are not only from the Punjab but from a particular city there - Gujrat. The second report claims that 69% of Pakistanis living in Spain live in the province of Barcelona.
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Although it looks to me like the convenience store is the major business they are involved in, they also seem to be heavily represented in 'locutorios' (small businesses where you can pay to use a phone by the minute), Internet cafes (often combined with locutorios) and restaurants. In addition the local gas company's butane delivery staff appears dominated by Pakistanis and the many construction sites around the city usually have at least some Pakistani laborers. Obviously, Barcelona is a place where many Pakistani immigrants are establishing a life for themselves.
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I would love to know more about the history of this community and how Barcelona came to be the destination of so many. (I've heard estimates as low as 10,000 and as high as 60,000.) I have asked a few Pakistanis about this, but have not discovered much other than things like, "I had a friend/neighbor/relative who lived here" or "who knew someone who lived here."
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Although I don't know when the immigration began, I believe the majority have arrived relatively recently. (Another perception verified by the Multiculturalism and Health report.) However, I do know one man from Pakistan, an owner of an electronics shop, who has lived here for over 25 years and who has raised his children here.
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If anyone knows anything about the history of this community, please feel free to share it here. It would be another piece in the puzzle about how Barcelona has become (or maybe I should say, is becoming) such a diverse and interesting place.
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Chao amig@s
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Carloz