Spain takes major migration step: Legal status granted to 500,000 migrants

A new regulation has been approved to legalize the status of 500,000 undocumented migrants who have lived in Spain for at least five months and applied for international protection before 31 December 2025.

Migration Minister Elma Saiz said those covered by the measure “will have the right to work anywhere in the country, in any sector,” adding: “We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, and coexistence, aligned with economic growth and social cohesion.”

Applicants will be required to have a clean criminal record. Children already living in Spain will also be eligible under the regulation.

The opposition criticized the move, saying that “illegality is being rewarded in Spain.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has said Spain needs migration to address labour shortages and counter an ageing population that threatens the pension system and welfare state.

According to official data, of the 76,200 people who contributed to employment growth in the final quarter of last year, 52,500 were foreign nationals. The increase helped bring the unemployment rate to its lowest level since 2008.

Spain is one of Europe’s main entry points for irregular migrants fleeing poverty, conflict, and persecution. Tens of thousands of migrants, most of them from sub-Saharan Africa, arrive in the Canary Islands off the northwest African coast.

As of early January 2025, around 840,000 undocumented migrants were living in Spain, most of them from Latin America.

According to the latest figures from the National Statistics Institute, more than 7 million foreign nationals live in Spain, which has a population of 49.4 million.

Source: Euronews