Spain has unveiled plans to legalize the status of up to 500,000 undocumented migrants, a policy shift that sharply contrasts with tightening immigration rhetoric in the United States and across much of Europe.
CNN reported that the announcement was made on Tuesday and is designed to curb labor exploitation within Spain’s informal economy.
Both Spain’s central bank and the United Nations have previously warned that the country needs roughly 300,000 migrant workers annually to maintain 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 policy as a practical response to an existing social reality, stressing that it would also deliver economic benefits.
According to Spain’s presidency, the measure aims to ensure migrants can live “a dignified” life.
Under the new rules, migrants who entered Spain before December 31, 2025, and can prove they have lived in the country for at least five months, will be eligible for up to one year of legal residency, alongside work permits valid nationwide and across all sectors. Applicants must also show they have no criminal record.
Applications will open in April 2026 and close on June 30, 2026.
Despite the scale of the initiative, it will not cover all undocumented migrants in Spain.
Research body Funcas, linked to the banking association CECA, estimates that around 840,000 undocumented migrants were living in Spain at the start of 2025.
Funcas data shows that approximately 760,000 of them are from Latin America, with Colombians making up about 290,000, followed by nearly 110,000 Peruvians and 90,000 Hondurans.
The organization reports that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain has increased eightfold since 2017.
Tuesday’s decision builds on reforms introduced in May last year, which sought to simplify and speed up the regularization process.
The Spanish government said that earlier measure could enable up to 900,000 migrants to secure legal status over a three-year period.
Spain has a long history of granting legal status to undocumented migrants. Since the 1980s, such large-scale regularizations have been approved on at least six occasions.
In 1986, under socialist Prime Minister Felipe González, more than 38,000 people were legalized.
Between 1991 and 1992, also during González’s tenure, over 114,000 migrants obtained residency. Later, under José María Aznar, more than 524,000 people were granted legal papers between 1996 and 2001.
The most recent mass regularization occurred nearly 21 years ago, under José Luís Rodríguez Zapatero, when more than 576,000 applications were processed.
The move by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez’s government comes amid renewed criticism from United States President, Donald Trump, who has repeatedly attacked Europe’s immigration policies.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly in September, Trump warned that 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 have adopted tougher stances on migration, including Italy’s controversial transfer of rescued asylum seekers to deportation center, Spain has largely taken a different approach, viewing immigration as a key driver of economic growth.
