Whereas the US has intensified its immigration crackdown and deportation efforts and European nations are closing their borders one after the opposite, Spain continues to behave as an outlier.
Spain’s left-wing authorities in late January permitted a royal decree — and not using a vote in parliament, the place it has no majority — to regularize a number of hundred thousand undocumented individuals who already dwell and work within the nation.
To be eligible to use for a one-year renewable residence allow, candidates should have no prison file and show they’ve been current in Spain for a minimum of 5 consecutive months previous to Dec. 31, 2025.
Even when there aren’t any official figures on the precise variety of undocumented individuals residing in Spain, it’s estimated that half 1,000,000 to at least one million individuals could possibly be affected by this measure, which Spain is selling as a option to alleviate an employment scarcity in its booming economic system.
“I nonetheless cannot consider it. I am torn between pleasure and the sensation that it might probably’t be actual,” stated a 36-year-old Honduran, who has been residing in Madrid for nearly a yr and a half with out papers. CBC isn’t naming him as a result of he doesn’t but have authorized standing in Spain and fears reprisal from employers.
He says he has already submitted an asylum utility however remains to be ready. He plans to use to this new program for which he’s eligible. Till then, he continues to tackle odd jobs beneath the desk to ship cash to his spouse and five-year-old daughter, who stay in Honduras.
“Throughout the week I work in development, and on weekends I’m a dishwasher at a restaurant. It is not straightforward on daily basis, we’re typically exploited and have to simply accept every thing we’re requested to do. We now have no rights and a really low wage,” he stated.
Almost 90 per cent of undocumented migrants in Spain are believed to be from Latin America, primarily Colombia, Peru and Honduras. Since they don’t want a visa to enter as vacationers, many use this pathway to then keep illegally within the nation, the place they converse the identical language and share cultural affinities. Since U.S. President Donald Trump’s return to the White Home, Spain has seen an improve within the arrival of Latin Individuals who’re avoiding the US.
Financial affect
There are practically seven million international nationals residing in Spain — virtually 15 per cent of its inhabitants — in keeping with the newest knowledge. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez recurrently praises the advantages of immigration to elucidate Spain’s booming economic system.
The nation recorded 2.8 per cent development in 2025 and noticed its unemployment charge fall under 10 per cent, a primary for the reason that extreme financial disaster the nation skilled. After a housing bubble burst, Spain had a disaster from 2008 to 2014 that resulted in bankruptcies, widespread unemployment, the necessity for presidency bailouts, and long-lasting social and financial hurt.
“Immigration is certainly one of many causes for this good financial well being,” stated Raymond Torres, an economist on the Spanish think-tank Funcas. “The tourism, companies and development sectors are in excessive demand and rely upon immigration.”
The brand new regularization plan was welcomed by employers dealing with a persistent labour scarcity. “It is a actuality that we have now been denouncing for a very long time within the development sector,” stated Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Vía Agora, an actual property growth and property administration firm.
“The wants are pressing,” he stated, referring to Spain’s development sector, which would wish 700,000 extra staff to fulfill present demand. Gómez-Pintado says that this measure might significantly assist the business.
In 2005, the nation had already regularized for financial causes practically 600,000 undocumented individuals. This regularization improved migrants’ job alternatives, mobility, and tax contributions however didn’t set off a “name impact” or affect staff of various abilities and wages equally, in keeping with research.
The strain to regularize undocumented migrants grew in the course of the pandemic, when many migrants continued to work in precarious circumstances. Subsequently, greater than 700,000 residents signed a legislative initiative to request their regularization.
Along with serving to alleviate the labour scarcity, the measure can be meant to assist bail out public funds. Undocumented individuals have entry to well being care, which is common in Spain, though they do not contribute to social safety, Torres defined. “There’s subsequently an expense on the one hand and no revenue on the opposite,” stated Torres. Numerous research have certainly proven that an undocumented individual prices a state extra yearly than an individual with authorized standing.
This huge regularization might result in different optimistic results, Torres stated, particularly by limiting unfair competitors between corporations — whose prices range relying on whether or not their workforce is said or not — whereas providing new skilled alternatives.
“A few of these immigrant staff have a lot broader abilities. They’re typically medical doctors however work as home staff as a consequence of their irregular standing. Regularization can enable them to vary this,” he stated.
‘Overloaded’ system
The Spanish authorities introduced that regularization purposes would start in April and would prolong till the tip of June, making certain that administrative procedures wouldn’t exceed three months. The federal government needs to be reassuring, whereas officers have already warned in latest months of a scarcity of assets to cope with all of the requests obtained by the Spanish immigration system.
“The system is already overloaded. Procedures that ought to take a number of months typically take as much as a yr. It may be a giant problem,” stated Eva María Navarrete Parrondo, an immigration lawyer in Madrid.
She says she’s been receiving practically 400 requests per day since final week’s announcement. “Nearly all of my undocumented purchasers are already working with out correct documentation, principally within the development business. They’ve excessive expectations, hoping to free themselves from the burden of insecurity and acquire higher working and residing circumstances,” she stated.
Parrondo says she thinks Trump’s mass deportation insurance policies accelerated Spain’s determination to point out its distinction.
Nevertheless, it’s not making everybody joyful in Spain. The suitable-wing opposition has expressed fears that public companies might be overwhelmed, whereas the far proper describes the announcement as an “invasion” of the nation. They raised this concern on the EU degree, which has since replied that it falls beneath the jurisdiction of the member states.
Prime Minister Sánchez responded to critics in a video posted on social media, saying that Spain selected the trail of “dignity, group, and justice,” and asking, “When did recognizing rights turn out to be one thing radical?”
Though the Honduran employee CBC spoke with says he typically receives remarks about not being Spanish and being undocumented, he says the reception he typically receives in Spain is sort of good as a result of individuals know they want him.
“We’re not stealing jobs from Spaniards, we’re merely doing jobs they do not wish to do,” he stated. He now locations a whole lot of hope on this regularization plan. “I can not look forward to this complete nightmare to finish. I hope that afterwards I will be capable of deliver my daughter and spouse right here. That is my final dream.”
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