Madrid distances itself from the dominant line in Europe: while many governments are tightening borders and rules, Pedro Sanchez‘s progressive executive is starting a extraordinary regularization intended for over half a million irregular immigrants. A political and symbolic choice that intertwines rights, demographics and economics, claimed as a “realistic” response to a transformation already underway in Spanish society.
“Today is one historic day for our country”, declared the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, at the end of the Council of Ministers. “We strengthen a migration model based on human rights, integration and coexistence, compatible with economic growth and social cohesion”.
The measure – agreed with Podemos e adopted by decree by the executive of the Psoe-Sumar minority coalition, to avoid the gauntlet of Parliament – opens the process for granting a legal residence permit to “around half a million foreigners” present in Spain for at least five months before 31 December 2025 and without a criminal record.
Initially annual, it will immediately allow applicants access to work “in all sectors and everywhere in the country”. Who will then conclude the integration process through the ordinary legislation on Foreigners. It includes immediate family reunification also for minor children. The deadlines for submitting regularization requests will start from April and end on June 30th.
The numbers explain the reasons for the choice. They live in Spain over 7 million foreigners out of 49.4 million inhabitants (INE data) and which represent 16% of those registered with Social Security, as highlighted by Minister Saiz. Illegal immigrants, according to a report by the Funcas analysis centre, are around 840 thousand, eight times more than in 2017. The large majority (about 91%) come from Latin America. with particularly numerous Colombian, Peruvian and Honduran nationalities, with Hispanic mother tongues.
A workforce that is largely already part of the economy and which can now be regularized. While the flows of irregular migrants are decreasing: in 2025, around 37 thousand irregular migrants entered Spain, equal to -42% compared to 2024, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
The government openly binds the robust economic growth in recent years (of 2.9% of GDP in 2025, more than double the European average) to the contribution of immigration. It is no coincidence that Sanchez repeated that “it is decisive for the expansion of the economy”. And, just today, the data released by the INE on employment in 2025 set records of over 22.4 million workers, with an unemployment rate that fell below 10% for the first time in 18 years. And with almost half a million more people in the active workforce, they have eased the pressures of an aging population by supporting the welfare system.
The amnesty, inspired by a popular legislative initiative of 2023, supported by 700,000 signatures from the associative world (including the Spanish Church) but blocked in Parliament, has however political conflict exacerbated. The far-right Vox party, led by Santiago Abascal, reacted with extreme tones, branding it a “booster effect” for thousands of people. He accused the government of wanting to “replace the Spanish people” and called for “expulsions and forced repatriations”. While the leader of the conservative Partido Pupular, Alberto Nunez Feijoo, defined the regularization as “a smoke screen” aimed at “diverting attention” from critical issues, such as the management of public transport, after the recent national tragedies of the train massacre in Adamuz (Cordoba) in which 45 people died.
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