Why Spain is aiming to regularize half a million undocumented migrants

While the United States has intensified its immigration crackdown and deportation efforts  and European countries are closing their borders one after the other, Spain continues to act as an outlier.

Spain's left-wing government in late January approved a royal decree — without a vote in parliament, where it has no majority — to regularize several hundred thousand undocumented people who already live and work in the country. 

To be eligible to apply for a one-year renewable residence permit, applicants must have no criminal record and prove they have been present in Spain for at least five consecutive months prior to Dec. 31, 2025. 

Even if there are no official figures on the exact number of undocumented people living in Spain, it is estimated that half a million to one million people could be affected by this measure, which Spain is promoting as a way to alleviate an employment shortage in its booming economy.

"I still can't believe it. I'm torn between joy and the feeling that it can't be real," said a 36-year-old Honduran, who has been living in Madrid for almost a year and a half without papers. CBC is not naming him because he does not yet have legal status in Spain and fears reprisal from employers.

He says he has already submitted an asylum application but is still waiting. He plans to apply to this new program for which he is eligible. Until then, he continues to take on odd jobs under the table to send money to his wife and five-year-old daughter, who remain in Honduras. 

"During the week I work in construction, and on weekends I’m a dishwasher at a restaurant. It's not easy every day, we're often exploited and have to accept everything we're asked to do. We have no rights and a very low salary," he said.

Nearly 90 per cent of undocumented migrants in Spain are believed to be from Latin America, primarily Colombia, Peru and Honduras. Since they do not need a visa to enter as tourists, many use this pathway to then stay illegally in the country, where they speak the same language and share cultural affinities. Since U.S. President Donald Trump's return to the White House, Spain has seen an increase in the arrival of Latin Americans who are avoiding the United States. 

There are nearly seven million foreign nationals living in Spain — almost 15 per cent of its population — according to the most recent data. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez regularly praises the benefits of immigration to explain Spain's booming economy.

The country recorded 2.8 per cent growth in 2025 and saw its unemployment rate fall below 10 per cent, a first since the severe economic crisis the country experienced. After a housing bubble burst, Spain had a crisis from 2008 to 2014 that resulted in bankruptcies, widespread unemployment, the need for government bailouts, and long-lasting social and economic harm.

"Immigration is indeed one of the reasons for this good economic health," said Raymond Torres, an economist at the Spanish think-tank Funcas. "The tourism, services and construction sectors are in high demand and depend on immigration." 

The new regularization plan was welcomed by employers facing a persistent labour shortage. "This is a reality that we have been denouncing for a long time in the construction sector," said Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Vía Agora, a real estate development and property management company. 

"The needs are urgent,” he said, referring to Spain's construction sector, which would need 700,000 more workers to meet current demand. Gómez-Pintado says that this measure could greatly help the industry. 

In 2005, the country had already regularized for economic reasons nearly 600,000 undocumented people. This regularization improved migrants’ job opportunities, mobility, and tax contributions but did not trigger a "call effect" or impact workers of different skills and wages equally, according to studies.