Spain To Grant Legal Status To 500,000 Undocumented Migrants

Spain has announced plans to grant legal status to about 500,000 undocumented migrants, a move that contrasts sharply with rising anti-immigration rhetoric in the United States and parts of Europe.

The decision, announced on Tuesday, was aimed at reducing labour exploitation within Spain’s underground economy and addressing workforce shortages. Spain’s central bank and the United Nations have previously warned that the country required at least 300,000 migrant workers annually to sustain its welfare system.

“Today is a historic day for our country,” Spain’s Immigration Minister, Elma Saiz, said at a press conference. “We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, coexistence, and compatibility with economic growth and social cohesion.”

Saiz described the measure as “necessary to respond to a reality that exists on our streets,” adding that it would also benefit the Spanish economy.

The Spanish presidency said the policy would enable migrants to live a “dignified” life.

Under the new measure, foreigners who arrived in Spain before December 31, 2025, and can prove they have lived in the country for at least five months, will be eligible for legal residency of up to one year. Successful applicants will also receive work permits valid across all sectors and regions of the country, provided they can demonstrate they have no criminal record.

Applications will open in early April and run until June 30, 2026.

Despite the scale of the initiative, the number of undocumented migrants in Spain exceeds those covered by the policy. According to Funcas, an economic analysis centre linked to banking association CECA, there were about 840,000 undocumented migrants in Spain at the beginning of 2025.

Funcas estimates that around 760,000 of them are from Latin America, including about 290,000 Colombians, nearly 110,000 Peruvians, and about 90,000 Hondurans. The centre also noted that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain has increased eight-fold since 2017.

Tuesday’s announcement builds on a reform introduced in May last year, which sought to simplify and speed up regularisation procedures. The Spanish government said that policy could enable up to 900,000 undocumented migrants to obtain legal status over a three-year period.

Spain has previously approved large-scale regularisation programmes on at least six occasions since the 1980s. In 1986, under the socialist government of Felipe González, more than 38,000 people were granted legal status.

Between 1991 and 1992, also under González, over 114,000 migrants obtained residency.

During the administration of José María Aznar, between 1996 and 2001, more than 524,000 people were regularised.

The most recent large-scale programme occurred nearly 21 years ago under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero, when more than 576,000 applications were processed.

The move by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government comes amid renewed criticism of European migration policies by US President Donald Trump.

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in September, Trump said Europe was in “serious trouble” and had been “invaded by a force of illegal aliens.”

More recently, at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Trump said parts of Europe had become “unrecognizable” and were “not heading in the right direction.”

While several European countries, including Italy, have adopted stricter immigration measures, Spain has largely maintained a more open approach, viewing migration as a tool to support economic growth.