Surprise Move: Spain To Regularize Thousands Of Immigrants

(MENAFN- Kashmir Observer) Barcelona- Spain's government announced Tuesday it will grant legal status to potentially hundreds of thousands of immigrants living and working in the country without authorisation, the latest example of how the country has bucked a trend toward increasingly harsh immigration policies seen in the United States and much of Europe.

Spain's Minister of Migration, Elma Saiz, announced the extraordinary measure following the weekly cabinet meeting. She said her government will amend existing immigration laws by expedited decree to grant immigrants who are living in Spain without authorisation legal residency of up to one year as well as permission to work.

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The permits will apply to those who arrived in Spain before Dec 31, 2025, and who can prove they have lived in Spain for at least five months. They must also prove they have no criminal record.

In contrast to other nations that have moved to restrict immigration and asylum, many emboldened by the Trump administration's policies, Spain has taken the opposite direction with Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and his ministers often extolling the benefits of immigration to the economy.

Spain“will not look the other way,” Saiz told journalists during a press conference. The government is“dignifying and recognising people who are already in our country,” she said.

The measure could benefit an estimated 500,000 people living in Spain without authorisation, Saiz said.

Other studies have put the estimate of people living in the shadows of Spanish society at up to 800,000. Many are Latin American or African immigrants working in the agricultural, tourism or service sectors, backbones of Spain's booming economy.

The expedited decree bypasses a similar bill that has stalled in parliament. Saiz said she expects those eligible will be able to start applying for their legal status from April until the end of June.

The Spanish government's move came as a surprise to many after a last-minute deal between the ruling Socialist Party and the left-wing Podemos party in exchange for parliamentary support to Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez wobbly government.

Irene Montero, a European Parliament lawmaker with Podemos, which first announced the deal Monday, said the crackdown against immigrants in the United States was unacceptable.

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