Spain announced plans to grant legal residency to around 500,000 undocumented migrants, marking a sharp departure from the increasingly restrictive migration policies seen across much of Europe and the United States.
The measure, unveiled on Tuesday, aims to curb labor exploitation in Spain’s shadow economy and address long-term workforce shortages, as the government positions migration as a key driver of economic growth rather than a burden.
Spanish Migration Minister Elma Saiz described the decision as a historic turning point.
“Today is a historic day for our country,” Saiz said at a press conference. “We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, coexistence, and alignment with economic growth and social cohesion.”
Spanish authorities say the move responds to realities on the ground while delivering tangible economic benefits. The Spanish central bank and the United Nations have previously warned that Spain will need around 300,000 migrant workers annually to sustain its social security system amid demographic pressures.
According to the government, the new regularization process will help reduce abuse in informal labor markets while allowing migrants to live and work legally and with dignity.
Under the plan, foreign nationals who entered Spain before 2026, and who can prove at least five months of continuous residence, will be eligible for legal residency for up to one year, along with work permits valid across all sectors and regions.
Applicants must have a clean criminal record. The application window will run from early April through June 30, 2026.
The Spanish presidency said the policy is intended to ensure migrants can secure stable livelihoods and integrate more fully into society.
The decision, however, will not cover all undocumented migrants currently living in Spain.
According to estimates by Funcas, an economic research group linked to Spain’s banking association CECA, the country had around 840,000 undocumented migrants at the start of 2025.
Funcas estimates that roughly 760,000 of them are from Latin America, including about 290,000 Colombians, 110,000 Peruvians, and 90,000 Hondurans. The number of undocumented migrants in Spain has increased eightfold since 2017, the group said.
Tuesday’s announcement builds on reforms that took effect in May last year, designed to streamline and accelerate migrant regularization. The government believes the combined measures could allow up to 900,000 migrants to obtain legal status over the next three years.
Spain has implemented large-scale migrant regularization programs on at least six previous occasions since the 1980s.
In 1986, under Socialist Prime Minister Felipe González, more than 38,000 people were granted legal status. Between 1991 and 1992, that figure rose to over 114,000.
During the tenure of conservative Prime Minister José María Aznar, residency documents were issued to more than 524,000 migrants between 1996 and 2001. The most recent major regularization took place 21 years ago, under Prime Minister José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, when over 576,000 people received legal residency.
The move by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government comes as migration rhetoric hardens elsewhere.
U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized European migration policies, warning at the United Nations General Assembly in September that Europe was in a “serious bind” and “under siege from illegal migration.” More recently, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said parts of Europe had become “unrecognizable” and were “not moving in the right direction.”
Several European countries, including Italy, have adopted tougher approaches, such as transferring rescued asylum seekers to offshore detention centers.
Spain, by contrast, remains an outlier, viewing migration not as a threat, but as a strategic tool to bolster its economy.
Follow the latest news on Google News
