By means of opening a brand new immigration procedure that may get advantages just about part 1,000,000 undocumented overseas staff, Spain is charting its personal trail on immigration coverage whilst strengthening its reliance on migrants to gas financial expansion.
“We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration and coexistence and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion,” stated Elma Saiz, Minister of Inclusion, Social Safety and Migration, pronouncing the measures in overdue January.
The federal government plans to obtain programs for legalization between April and June, despite the fact that the dates and ultimate main points might be introduced in February.
Thus far, the federal government has introduced that immigrants who shouldn’t have a prison file and will end up they’ve lived in Spain for 5 months (with an access cut-off date of December 31, 2025) will have the ability to practice for a one-year place of dwelling and paintings allow. Individuals who carried out for asylum prior to that date also are eligible. Migrants may also have the ability to legalize their minor kids, who will obtain a five-year place of dwelling allow.
Mass legislation in 2005
To grasp the prospective financial affect of this measure, we will be able to have a look at the final legalization, in 2005, which legalized about 600,000 undocumented staff. Our analysis analyzed a variety of signs: migration flows, schooling and well being expenditures, payroll and source of revenue taxes, and the hard work marketplace.
The effects are, in some ways, as important for what took place as for what didn’t occur.
Fears that there might be an build up within the selection of unlawful immigrants coming into Spain have confirmed to be unfounded. Alternatively, border controls turned into extra stringent and there was once a marketing campaign towards casual employment that may have curbed the impact of withdrawal.
We additionally checked out sanatorium admissions and insist for schooling and once more noticed no primary adjustments. In Spain, undocumented immigrants have get admission to to emergency care, and the well being device’s services and products are most commonly asked via older Spaniards, now not younger immigrants.
More straightforward get admission to to raised jobs
As staff entered the formal hard work marketplace, salary contributions rose via about 4,000 euros in line with legalized immigrant in line with yr. In relation to source of revenue taxes, we see little or no alternate: many immigrants earn minimal salary and pay very little source of revenue tax.
Fears of festival for jobs between immigrants and natives had been expressed. Alternatively, the formal marketplace absorbed the brand new staff with none affect on local employment or wages. In reality, the casual hard work marketplace has reduced in size even for home staff, in all probability because of the federal government’s marketing campaign towards this sort of paintings.
Most likely most significantly, regularization acted as a catalyst for higher jobs. Taking a look on the social safety device through the years, upward mobility was once seen amongst migrants as they moved from one process to any other.
Alternatively, there’s a lot more to be accomplished on this space. A contemporary find out about of 9 immigrant-receiving nations discovered that immigrants in Spain earn a median of 29% not up to local staff, the most important salary hole some of the nations studied. That is principally because of the truth that it’s tricky for them to recover paying jobs.
Absorption of latest staff
There is not any explanation why to be expecting that the affect this time might be a lot other than two decades in the past. There are an estimated 800,000 undocumented immigrants in Spain, of which about 500,000 may qualify for legalization.
The Spanish economic system grew via 2.8% in 2025 and unemployment fell underneath 10% (9.93% within the fourth quarter of 2025) for the primary time for the reason that monetary disaster of 2008. Greater than 600,000 new jobs are created in 2025, with the services and products sector and agriculture seeing the most important expansion.
There may be enough and dependable call for for employees within the sectors to which immigrants gravitate – hospitality, care, building, agriculture, and so on. – for the economic system to take in them.
As well as, many immigrants come from Latin The usa, so that they proportion a language and cultural affinity this is more likely to facilitate their integration into the Spanish personnel.
Land of immigrants?
What has modified radically within the final two decades is that Spain is changing into a rustic of immigrants. Whilst in contemporary historical past Spaniards have sought paintings in another country, this modified within the early 2000s, when immigration higher. After stabilizing within the decade following the 2008 monetary disaster, immigration has risen once more since 2018.
The drift of the immigrant inhabitants between 2008 and 2021. INE, CC BI-SA
Legit estimates display that if present demographic tendencies proceed, Spain’s inhabitants will develop from 49.4 million as of late to 54.6 million in 2074, an build up produced only via immigration. In line with those estimates, the share of the inhabitants born out of doors of Spain will build up from 18% to 39% within the subsequent 50 years.
To be taken under consideration
Confronted with this large demographic alternate, the Executive will do smartly to be aware of what I name financial “bottlenecks”: the ones spaces, akin to public services and products, the place migration represents an extra force that, if now not resolved, can scale back the standard of existence in Spain.
The immigration debate has grow to be intertwined with different key debates for Spain, such because the housing disaster and extra tourism. 3 problems – immigration, housing and tourism – have a tendency to be specifically urgent in giant towns like Madrid and Barcelona.
That is the place congestion can happen. Inhabitants expansion puts new calls for on infrastructure and public services and products, akin to transportation. Merely put, extra folks want extra lodging, extra seats on buses and trains, extra faculty puts for his or her kids, and so on. So immigrants should have get admission to to an entire vary of jobs, and that’s the reason the place the problem actually starts.
Simply as there is not any easy approach to the housing disaster or over-tourism, there is not any easy approach to migration, now not even beneficiant legislation.
