Members of Regularización YA celebrate the announcement of Spain’s regularization program, which could grant legal residence and work permits to around 500,000 migrants. Photo courtesy Regularización YA.

On a warm and sunny February morning in Alicante, dozens of people crowded outside the Algerian consulate next to the city’s central market. Almost entirely men, mostly young or middle-aged, they rummaged through documents and passports, speaking Arabic to one another in low voices. The spectacle on the street couldn’t have gone unnoticed. Small crowds of migrants have become a common sight in cities across Spain since Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s recent announcement that the government would soon begin the process of regularizing undocumented migrant workers currently living there.

On January 27, 2026, Sánchez, who leads the Socialist Workers Party (PSOE), announced that migrants living in Spain without documentation would be eligible for regularization—the process by which non-nationals living irregularly in a country are granted legal status—if they have been there for at least five consecutive months prior to December 31, 2025, or have applied for asylum before that date. Applicants must prove they have no criminal record in their home country at the time of application. If approved, they will be granted a one-year legal residence permit with work authorization, which can later be modified or extended.

Children of applicants who have been living in Spain for five consecutive months prior to December 31 will be approved and receive a five-year residence permit. Approximately 500,000 people currently living and working in Spain are expected to benefit from this plan. The application process will run from early April to June 30 of this year.

Progressive members of the coalition government have expressed full support for the program. Spanish Migration Minister Elma Saiz told a news conference that regularized people would be able to work in any sector, anywhere in Spain, and that these changes would bring recognition and dignity to those living there. Sánchez has also pointed out that a low birthrate and an ageing population are putting pressure on the pension and social security systems, highlighting the need for more workers to contribute.

“Throughout history, migration has been one of the great drivers of the development of nations, while hatred and xenophobia have been—and continue to be—the greatest destroyers of nations. The key is to managing it well,” the prime minister said.

Irene Montero, the former minister of equality and a prominent member of Podemos, the far-left party in coalition with the PSOE, has long championed the regularization of migrants and echoed Sánchez’s call for a humane response to migration. “Providing rights is the answer to racism,” Montero said.

Grassroots organizing and royal decree

Yet it was not Sánchez and the PSOE or Podemos that drove the most recent move to regularize migrants—it was a grassroots group of active citizens. Following the........

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