Spain’s cabinet has just approved a law that allows over half a million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers already in the country to regularise their status, giving them temporary residence and the right to work. Applicants now have until 30 June to prove that they do not have a criminal record and that by the end of 2025 they had either been in Spain for at least five months or had sought international protection.

Given that Spain has among the highest unemployment rates in the European Union and an acute housing shortage, many feel it’s only common sense to encourage those who have no right to residence to leave rather than settle

Given that Spain has among the highest unemployment rates in the European Union and an acute housing shortage, many feel it’s only common sense to encourage those who have no right to residence to leave rather than settle

Spain’s socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, argues that western nations are facing a demographic crisis; with birth rates failing to keep pace, they must turn to immigration to avoid a shrinking population. Without a steady influx of newcomers, he suggests, they risk severe economic stagnation and the collapse of essential public services as workforces dwindle. Having grown at a rate of 600,000 a year since the end of the pandemic, Spain’s total foreign-born population currently stands at ten million (a fifth of the total population).

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