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New Reforms in Spain to Legalize 300,000 Illegal Immigrants Annually

November 20, 2024 TruthUSA

The reforms come as the country struggles with an aging population.

Spain will grant legal status to 300,000 illegal immigrants every year under new migration reform legislation passed on Tuesday aimed at bolstering the country’s labor force and sustaining economic growth.

The policy approved by the country’s leftist minority coalition government will begin the legalization process next May and run it through 2027.

Elsewhere under the reforms, administrative procedures for short and long-term visas will be streamlined and simplified while migrants will be allowed to register either as self-employed or salaried workers, and will be provided with additional labor protections and rights.

Additionally, the legislation extends a visa offered previously to job-seekers for three months to one year while migrants with a study visa could be allowed to work up to 30 hours per week.

The reforms come at a time when other European countries, including Germany, Italy, and Sweden, are moving to tighten border controls following an influx of migrants that some critics argue has led to increased crime and security threats.

Speaking to reporters on Wednesday, Spain’s Migration Minister, Elma Saiz, said the new measures will bolster human rights, and help combat mafias, fraud and the violation of rights while simultaneously helping Spain achieve “cultural wealth.”

However, Saiz also acknowledged the new policy is largely aimed at expanding Spain’s labor force amid an aging native-born population.

Spain’s economy is among the fastest-growing in the European Union this year, bolstered in large part by immigration and a strong rebound in tourism following the coronavirus pandemic.

Aging Population Poses Challenges

Still, the country needs around 250,000 to 300,000 registered tax-paying foreign workers a year to maintain its welfare state, Saiz told reporters on Wednesday.

“Spain has to opt between being an open, prosperous country or being a closed and poor one, and we have chosen the former,” Saiz said.

It comes as Spain’s birth rate dropped to its lowest level since records started in 1941 according to data published in February. Just 322,075 babies were added to the country’s population of 48.6 million in 2023, provisional data from its National Statistics Institute (INE) showed.

Meanwhile, data published in August showed the number of people over 65 living in Spain has increased by 17.38 percent since 2013, while the number of people aged 85 and over in Spain has increased by 35 percent in the last decade alone.

Spain’s aging population poses serious challenges to economic growth as the country continues to struggle with ongoing labor shortages, particularly across the services sector, in the wake of the pandemic.

The situation has already led to the country opening its doors to a wave of skilled immigrants—mainly from Latin America—in order to plug the gaps, with immigration accounting for 64 percent of new jobs created and half of Spain’s economic growth in 2023, according to Raymond Torres, chief economist at Funcas, a Madrid-based think tank.

According to government estimates, there are approximately, 600,000 undocumented immigrants in Spain, one of the highest rates in the European Union, although the exact number of foreigners living in Spain without documentation is unclear.

Reuters and the Associated Press contributed to this report.

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