Spain bets on migrants to counter labour shortage and boost growth

The Spanish authorities wants to regularise much than 1 cardinal migrants wrong 3 years.

For Madrid, this is 1 of the keys to aboriginal prosperity, successful a discourse of demographic decline.

By 2027, much than 1 cardinal undocumented immigrants could beryllium granted ineligible presumption successful Spain.

A authorities reform, which came into effect successful May 2025, plans to legalise 300,000 radical per twelvemonth for 3 years.

In parallel, a draught bill, yet to beryllium debated successful Parliament, aims to regularise 470,000 undocumented immigrants who arrived earlier the extremity of December 2024.

The main nonsubjective is to enactment economical maturation and the country’s pension system.

Migrants relationship for 13.5% of the Spanish workforce, and 40% of caller jobs successful 2024, peculiarly successful construction, agriculture and healthcare. 

Madrid’s caller argumentation aims to code the labour shortage and the aging population.

This is simply a world affecting the full European Union, wherever the working-age colonisation is declining by 1 cardinal radical per year.

Foreign workers filled two-thirds of caller jobs betwixt 2019 and 2023.

It is estimated that the EU has betwixt 2.6 and 3.2 cardinal undocumented migrants.

Among them is 31-year-old Lorena Flechas, who came to Spain from Colombia past March, with her hubby and their tiny girl Sol.

“In my country, close now, determination is simply a batch of war, bombings and kidnappings.

So, I told myself: ‘No, I can’t. I can’t permission my girl and my household successful this situation,’” explains Lorena.

“My archetypal enactment was the American dream, the United States. But I couldn’t get a visa. I besides thought astir crossing the border, but I didn’t privation to enactment my daughter’s beingness astatine risk.” 

Since visas are not required for astir Latin American citizens to participate the European Union, speech from Bolivians and Ecuadorians, Lorena and her hubby headed for Spain, wherever Lorena’s household is already living.

The mates has started the process to get residence permits and the close to enactment successful Spain.

“My girl is inactive precise young and she inactive has the accidental to person a bully acquisition and to thrive. And the babe I’m expecting besides deserves to turn up successful the champion conditions,” says Lorena, who dreams of 1 time being capable to bargain her ain location successful Spain.

In the meantime, the household lives connected unusual jobs her hubby finds and with the assistance of the relation AESCO, which supports immigrants some materially and successful their efforts to regularise their status.

The bulk of AESCO’s beneficiaries travel from Latin America.

“Currently, it takes 2 to 7 years for radical to get each the ineligible documents allowing them to beryllium afloat integrated,” says Andrés Gaviria, President of AESCO. “The caller betterment would velocity up the process considerably. This is indispensable to let a precise ample fig of radical to determination retired of the informal economy. And it is estimated that 5 to six retired of 10 radical from Latin America get with a degree. This constitutes a root of labour for sectors wherever the European labour marketplace faces important shortages.”

Claudia Finotelli, a sociologist and prof astatine Complutense University successful Madrid, says migration is present cardinal to Spain’s labour marketplace and demographic future. “Between 2022 and 2024, 5.2 cardinal jobs were created; 75% of them are held by radical with dual nationality oregon by foreigners,” she explains. 

Spain’s 2005 erstwhile regularisation programme unsocial brought €4,000 successful societal information gross per migrant, portion much than 1 cardinal radical person gained ineligible presumption since 2009, nether an idiosyncratic regularisation scheme.

While the Spanish exemplary is successful stark opposition to the European strategy, which focuses connected deportation, “similar measures person been taken successful assorted EU countries,” observes Finotelli, specified arsenic successful Portugal, Italy and Germany.

“The European Central Bank intelligibly stated successful a study published past May that the European Union is experiencing a labour shortage.

In Europe, 50% of the jobs created successful caller years were created acknowledgment to the publication of migrants. It’s an indispensable operator of the labour marketplace and economical growth, astatine a clip erstwhile the colonisation is declining, and babe boomers are 15 years distant from retirement,” concludes Finotelli.