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Marrakech – More than one million undocumented migrants in Spain have applied for legal status under a mass regularization scheme. The government confirmed the figure on Tuesday, the final day for submissions. It far exceeds the roughly 550,000 applications initially projected when the process launched in April.
“Behind every application is a person who already lives among us,” Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez remarked at the unveiling of the Integration and Citizenship Plan in Madrid. He framed the regularization as an effort to address an existing reality, arguing that administrative exclusion “does not protect anyone, does not give national priority to anyone.”
“When we condemn a person to invisibility, we make our country a worse country. We all lose,” he said, expressing his government’s ambition for the world to view Spain as a country that “respects, protects and upholds human rights.”
The plan, backed by €505 million in investment, comprises four pillars, 16 measures, and 10 objectives through 2030. It includes a labor mobility strategy to establish legal migration pathways, the creation of a state human mobility agency, and programs for professional training and language learning.
To qualify, applicants must prove arrival in Spain before January 1, 2026, a minimum of five consecutive months of uninterrupted residence, and a clean criminal record in Spain and in any country of residence over the past five years. Authorities have three months to process each case and decide whether to issue a work and residence permit valid exclusively in Spain.
The scheme, rooted in a citizens’ legislative initiative, has generated long queues at municipal offices nationwide over the past two months. Inclusion Minister Elma Saiz described it as a success. Yet the criminal records requirement has created obstacles, with many applicants forced to request documentation from their home countries, slowing the process considerably.
The advocacy group Regularización Ya brought a motion to Congress earlier this month seeking a deadline extension, with backing from Podemos, Sumar, EH Bildu, ERC, and BNG. “The date of June 30 is arbitrary,” spokesperson Victoria Columba contended, criticizing the government for failing to meet its own 15-day processing timeline.
A practical response to Spain’s aging population
Historically a land of emigrants, Spain is now a key entry point into the European Union for tens of thousands of undocumented migrants, alongside Italy and Greece. Many arrive via a perilous Atlantic route from West Africa to the Canary Islands, though numbers dropped last year after peaking in 2024.
The government presents regularization as less a concession than a calculation: both a humanitarian bulwark against the hidden economy that leaves undocumented migrants exposed to abuse, and an economic necessity for a country growing older and running short of workers.
Legal status would also shield them from predatory employers who exploit their vulnerability through unpaid labor, suppressed wages, and zero protections.
Sánchez, who has presided over one of the world’s fastest-growing developed economies, has long argued that immigrants are essential for sectors facing acute labor shortages, particularly construction. Spanish business leaders have broadly welcomed the initiative.
The conservative and far-right opposition, however, argues the policy will incentivize further irregular migration. Several right-governed regions, including Valencia and Aragon, have filed legal appeals.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court granted parties five days to present arguments on whether certain aspects of the decree warrant referral to the Court of Justice of the European Union (CJEU).
The tribunal flagged potential conflicts with the EU’s Migration and Asylum Pact, which stipulates that responsibility for migrant arrivals should be borne collectively by the bloc rather than by individual member states.
While acknowledging “tensions” and “challenges” tied to immigration, Sánchez accused the right of “fueling fear and stirring up xenophobic discourse that does not solve any problem.”
Read also: Spain Makes a Big Move While Europe Hesitates on Migration
