Spain to regularise 500,000 migrants in historic move

The Spanish government is about to kick off a mass regularisation of more than 500,000 irregular migrants. The Council of Ministers approved a Royal Decree on Tuesday creating a fast-track path to legal residence for foreign nationals who can prove at least five months of continuous stay in the country prior to the end of December 2025.

In order to get the regularisation process over the line, Spain’s Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez reportedly reached an agreement with the left-wing Podemos party, which previously worked in coalition with Sanchez.

Spain’s Migration Minister Elma Saiz called the Regularisation decree being passed ‘an historic day’s here. Photo: Collected
The agreement was approved on Tuesday, reported the Turkish news agency Anadolu (AA). Elma Saiz, Spain’s Minister for Migration, called it a “historic day. A migration model based on human rights and compatible with economic growth.” Spanish bishops also called for the measure to be supported.

Applications for the scheme are expected to open at the beginning of April. Once started, this would represent the first mass regularisation programme in almost 20 years.

To be eligible for the programme, migrants will need to document at least five months of continuous stay within the country. Applicants will also need to have no relevant criminal record. Documentation needed to prove eligibility can include municipal registration, medical reports, utility contracts or money transfer certificates, reported Morocco World News (MWN).

Campaigners had been pushing for the regularisation for a number of years now, finally gathering enough signatures in 2024 to get it put to a vote in parliament.

Residence permit, access to health care and right to work

If accepted, the decree will suspend any expulsion procedures and would allow for the issue of a one-year provisional residence permit, renewable on “standard terms,” reports the website VisaHQ. The website exists as a paid-for service to allow people to make visa applications, but it also prints news relating to visas and residence.

Anyone granted one of the new regularised documents would have the right to work, access to the public health care system and the right to register for social security. Estimates regarding how many people will be able to take up the offer range slightly. The Podemos party thinks that just over half a million people might be able to apply.

The leader of Podemos, Ione Belarra, said she believed the regularisation could benefit between 500,000 and 800,000 people. Funcas, an independent think tank dedicated to economic and social research in Spain, estimates the figure might be closer to 600,000.

Belarra underlined that the measure was for migrants who are already in Spain, “who are working without rights.” Belarra added on social media that it was one of the biggest labour rights advances in years.

Increasing tax revenues?

According to VisaHQ, the Spanish government wants to use the measure to try and reduce the number of irregular migrants in the country. Some estimates suggest that there could be as many as 840,000 people. Reducing that number, they hope, should help reduce the risks of labour exploitation and increase tax revenues for the government.

In 2005, a similar regularisation amnesty was issued to around 580,000 people. Supporters of this measure say it helped boost GDP and formal employment.

The Spanish economy is looking for more legally employed workers in the hospitality industry, logistics and elderly care. A deadline for applications is expected to remain open until June 30.

The Interior Ministry has promised to deploy around 400 temporary caseworkers and open an online portal to try and prevent backlogs in the application process. However, some civil society organisations, while welcoming the measure, are worried that Spain’s immigration offices are already overstretched and that they might not be able to cope with demand.

Spain — an outlier in the EU

Spain remains fairly unusual within the EU bloc in its approach to migration. Countries like Italy and Germany are also seeking more skilled workers and legal pathways into their countries, but have not announced similar amnesties for the regularisation of irregular migrants.

Similar regularisation programmes do occur across Europe periodically, depending on labour demands. According to MWN, Italy and Portugal last initiated such programmes in 2020 and Greece in 2023. Sometimes the programmes might also be linked to particular migrant populations, following agreements with third countries, from where the majority of migrants needed in a particular sector have been coming.

France has gone in the other direction, actually reducing regularisation by over 42 per cent, reports MWN, over the last two years and Belgium has conducted just three mass regularisation initiatives since 1974.

Over the past two years, Spain has been the fastest-growing major economy in the eurozone. Economic data released on Tuesday, reports AA, also showed that Spain’s unemployment rate fell below 10 per cent for the first time in 17 years.

Nevertheless, many of Spain’s brightest qualified graduates are still seeking work in other parts of Europe, citing the difficulty of finding employment and pay commensurate with their qualifications and expectations in Spain, and/or the potential possibility of earning more for the same jobs abroad.

Measure will help achieve ‘social justice’, says Podemos

The government has promised to issue decisions to applicants within 15 days of submission, reported MWN. The measure was introduced following a popular legislative initiative, which garnered around 700,000 signatures and was supported in parliament by 310 votes in favour to 33 against. The far-right and anti-migrant Vox party voted against the measure.

Podemos has promised that this measure is intended to achieve “social justice” for people living and working in Spain, who had been, according to the party, previously “denied basic rights through institutional racism,” reported MWN. While backing the measure, Podemos argued that refusing to grant migrants regular status only increased labour exploitation and fuels racist hatred.

However, according to MWN, Sanchez has conceded on the regularisation measure in order to win Podemos votes for an even more crucial “omnibus” decree, which includes pension increases and housing measures for Spanish citizens.

Podemos had reportedly threatened to vote against the omnibus decree, which would have potentially brought down key government legislation.

Criticism from the right

Alberto Nunez Feijoo, leader of the conservative People’s Party (PP), called the new regularisation measure a “smokescreen [that] transmits the worst possible message and consolidates a model that neither orders immigration nor protects coexistence.”

The leader of Vox, Santiago Abascal, reportedly branded Sanchez a “tyrant,” according to MWN, and said he must “hate the Spanish people,” since he appeared to be trying to “replace them.” His rhetoric draws on far-right “replacement theory” narratives designed to sow fear among the population by implying that they will be “overtaken” and eventually eliminated by an incoming migrant population.

Supporters of far-right parties held a rally on 24 January calling for Sanchez to resign.