While the United States and many countries in Europe are raising walls and tightening borders and rules on migrants, Spain is bucking the trend. Pedro Sanchez’s progressive executive begins an extraordinary regularization aimed at over 500 thousand irregular immigrants.
The agreement within the Sanchez government
The measure was approved yesterday, January 27, and is the result of a long discussion between the parties of the government coalition. Podemos took credit for the approval of this amnesty, requested by social organizations since the pandemic. The decree will allow the regulation to be changed in the next few weeks, which will modify the requirements for access to residence permits, allowing “around half a million foreigners” present in Spain for at least five months before 31 December 2025 and without a criminal record to obtain the granting of a legal residence permit. Initially annual, the measure will immediately allow applicants access to work “in all sectors and everywhere in the country”. Who will then conclude the integration process through the ordinary legislation on Foreigners. The measure includes immediate family reunification also for minor children. The deadlines for submitting regularization requests will start from April and end on June 30th.
How many migrants are there in Spain
According to what emerges from the report by the economic-social analysis center Funcas, based on data updated to 2025, over 7 million foreigners live in the country out of 49.4 million inhabitants. Of these, according to a report by the Funcas analysis centre, there are around 840 thousand illegal immigrants, eight times more than in 2017. Who are the illegal immigrants living in Spain? Around 90% come from Latin America, with particularly numerous Colombian, Peruvian and Honduran nationalities, whose mother tongue is Hispanic. Last year, however, the Madrid government recorded a reduction in the flow of irregular migrants: around 37 thousand irregular migrants entered the country, equal to -42% compared to 2024, according to the Ministry of the Interior.
The government openly links the robust economic growth of recent years (2.9% of GDP in 2025, more than double the European average) to the contribution of immigration. It is no coincidence that Sanchez repeated that “it is decisive for the expansion of the economy”. And, just today, the data released by the INE on employment in 2025 set records of over 22.4 million workers, with an unemployment rate that fell below 10% for the first time in 18 years.
“It’s a historic day”
After the approval of the measure by the Council of Ministers, the government spokesperson and Minister of Social Security, Migration and Inclusion Elma Saiz spoke of a “historic day”: “We are strengthening a migration model based on human rights, integration, coexistence and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion”. The socialist government underlines that it wants to “remain a beacon” and “a seed to fight against the advance of the far right”.
