Spain moves to legalise over 1 million irregular migrants

The Spanish government has opened an extraordinary regularisation process that allows more than one million undocumented migrants to apply for residence and work permits. The scheme, introduced by Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s left‑wing coalition, runs until early April and targets migrants who entered Spain before 1 January 2026, have lived continuously for at least five months, have clean criminal records and pose no public‑security threat.

Officials say the application surge has far exceeded expectations, reaching roughly 1 million submissions – double the original forecast of 500 000. The government plans to allocate €500 million from the state budget to fund the “Integration and Citizenship Plan”, which includes education, labour‑market measures and a new administrative body to oversee the process.

Sanchez warned that without integration the country could lose up to 19 % of its GDP by 2050, citing the fact that migrants already fill 43 % of newly created jobs and represent about 20 % of Spain’s population. Opposition parties PP and Vox have denounced the decree as illegal and have threatened to lodge complaints with the European Union, while EU right‑wing groups have also criticised the policy.

According to the national statistics institute (INE), the share of foreign‑born residents has doubled since 2002 to roughly 10 million people, underscoring the demographic importance of the regularisation drive.