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full screen A woman with a sign reading “migration is a right” during a protest in Pamplona, after about 20 migrants died at the border between Morocco and the Spanish exclave of Melilla in 2022. Photo: Alvaro Barrientos/AP/TT
Spain is to give hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants the legal right to live and live in the country.
Next year, around 300,000 undocumented people per year will “become legal”, says Migration Minister Elma Saiz.
The measure aims to expand Spain’s aging workforce by allowing migrants in the country to obtain work and residence permits – despite lacking formal documentation.
Spain needs around 250,000 registered migrant workers annually in order to maintain welfare, according to the migration minister. But the measure is also about showing respect for human rights, says Saiz.
– Today we can say that Spain is a better country, she says to the public service channel Radiotelevisión Española.
Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has repeatedly described the country’s migration policy as part of coming to terms with the country’s low birth rate.
So far this year alone, around 54,000 undocumented migrants have arrived in Spain by sea or land, according to the Interior Ministry in Madrid. Exactly how many live undocumented in the country is unclear, but many of them are said to have low-paid jobs that the Spanish themselves do not want – and without legal protection, they are vulnerable to exploitation and social misery.
With the new regulations, it will be administratively easier to issue short- and long-term visas and to provide working migrants with a better safety net, according to Saiz.
Spain’s economy is among the fastest growing in the EU, partly due to migration and an increase in tourism after the difficult years of the pandemic.