As the United States continues to step up immigration and deportation efforts and European countries close their borders one by one, Spain remains an outsider.
Spain’s left-wing government approved a royal decree at the end of January – without a vote in parliament – to regularize the hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants living and working in the country.
To be eligible to apply for a one-year renewable residence permit, applicants must prove that they have no criminal record and have been present in Spain for at least five consecutive months before December 31, 2025.
Although there are no official figures on the exact number of undocumented people living in Spain, it is estimated. From half a million to a million people Spain could be affected by this measure, which is being introduced to address job shortages in a growing economy.
“I still can’t believe it. I’m torn between happiness and the feeling that it can’t be real.” said the 36-year-old Honduran, who had been living in Madrid without papers for a year and a half. The CBC is not releasing his name. Because he is not yet legally recognized in Spain and he fears reprisals from employers.
He said he has applied for asylum but is still waiting. He plans to sign up for this new program. In the meantime, he continues to work odd jobs under the table to send money to his wife and five-year-old daughter, who remain in Honduras.
“During the week I work in construction, and on weekends I am a dishwasher in a restaurant. Every day is not easy, we are often exploited and we have to accept everything we are asked to do. We have no rights and very low wages”.
About 90 percent of undocumented immigrants in Spain are believed to come from Latin America, particularly Colombia, Peru and Honduras. Because they do not need a visa to enter as a tourist, many use this route to live illegally in the country, where they speak the same language and have cultural ties. After the US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Spain saw it. The increase in the arrival of Latin Americans Away from the United States.
Economic impact
About seven million foreigners live in Spain – Almost 15 percent of its population. – According to the most recent information. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez regularly extols the benefits of immigration to explain Spain’s booming economy.
The country is registered 2.8 percent growth by 2025. And he saw the unemployment The rate has fallen below 10 percentIt is the first time since the severe economic crisis that the country has faced. After the bursting of the housing bubble, Spain went through a crisis from 2008 to 2014 that led to bankruptcies, widespread unemployment, government bailouts, and long-term social and economic damage.
“Immigration is one of the reasons for this good economic health,” said Raymond Torres, an economist at the Spanish think tank Fancas. The tourism, service and construction sectors are in high demand and depend on immigration.
The new regularization plan has been welcomed by employers who have been facing persistent labor shortages. “This is a reality we’ve been condemning for a long time in the construction industry,” said Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Via Agora, a real estate development and asset management company.
“The needs are urgent,” he said, referring to the Spanish construction sector 700,000 more workers To meet current demand. Gómez-Pintado says this move could greatly help the industry.
In the year In 2005, the country was already normal due to economic reasons About 600,000 undocumented people. This regularization improved immigrants’ employment opportunities, mobility, and tax contributions, but did not trigger a “call effect” or affect workers of different occupations and wages equally. According to studies.
Pressure to regularize undocumented immigrants has grown during the pandemic, with many immigrants continuing to work in harsh conditions. Subsequently, from 700,000 citizens have signed the legislative initiative To ask for their regularity.
The move is aimed at helping to alleviate the labor shortage as well as helping the government with financial support. Undocumented people have access to health care, which is universal in Spain, even if they don’t contribute to social security, Torres explained. “So there’s spending on one side and no revenue on the other,” Torres said. Various studies show that an undocumented person spends more every year than a person with a legal status.
This massive standardization could lead to other positive effects, Torres said, notably by limiting unfair competition between companies — whose costs vary depending on whether their workforce is defined or not — while providing new professional opportunities.
“Some of these migrant workers have broader skills. Sometimes they are doctors, but because of their informal status, they work as domestic workers. Regularization allows them to change that,” he said.
“Overloaded” system
The Spanish government has announced that applications for regularization will begin in April and will be extended until the end of June, ensuring administrative procedures will not take more than three months. The government wants to calm down, but the authorities He warned of a lack of resources in recent months To deal with all requests received by the Spanish immigration system.
“The system is already overloaded. Processes that should take a few months sometimes take up to a year. It’s going to be a big challenge,” said Eva María Navarrete Parondo, an immigration lawyer in Madrid.
She says she has been receiving about 400 inquiries a day since last week’s announcement. “Most of my undocumented clients are working in the construction industry without adequate documentation. They have high hopes of freeing themselves from the burden of insecurity and finding better working and living conditions,” she said.
Parrondo says Trump’s mass deportation policy hastened her decision to show Spain’s contrast.
However, not everyone in Spain is happy. Right-wing opponents express fears that public services will be overcrowded, while the far-right criticizes the ad. “invasion” of the country. They raised this issue at the level of the European Union, which has since then He replied that it is under the jurisdiction of the member countries.
Prime Minister Sanchez responded to critics Video posted on social mediaSpain has chosen “the path of dignity, community and justice”, and “When is the right to recognize?”
even if A Honduran employee spoke to the CBC. He says he sometimes gets comments about not being Spanish and being undocumented, but generally the reception in Spain is great because people know they need it.
“We are not stealing jobs from the Spaniards, we are simply doing the jobs they don’t want to do,” he said. Now he has placed a lot of expectations in this normalization plan. “I can’t wait until this whole nightmare is over. I hope to be able to bring my daughter and my husband here after that. This is my ultimate dream.”