One million migrants in Spain apply to regularise status in new scheme

A young migrant (centre) queues in Almeria to buy a bus ticket to Valladolid, to obtain a vulnerability certificate to regularise migration status. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters View image in fullscreen A young migrant (centre) queues in Almeria to buy a bus ticket to Valladolid, to obtain a vulnerability certificate to regularise migration status. Photograph: Nacho Doce/Reuters One million migrants in Spain apply to regularise status in new scheme Programme defending benefits of immigration attracts double number of applicants expected More than 1 million undocumented migrants and asylum seekers have applied to regularise their status in Spain under a government programme to harness and defend the benefits of immigration at a time when most European countries are pulling up the drawbridge. Although the massive regularisation initiative, announced by the socialist-led government in January, was originally intended to benefit about 500,000 people, it had attracted more than twice that number of applicants by the time the registration period ended on Tuesday. The scheme offers a residence and work permit, initially valid for one year, to applicants who can prove that they do not have a criminal record and that they had lived in Spain for at least five months – or had sought international protection – before 31 December 2025. Speaking in Madrid on Tuesday, Spain’s prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the huge take-up of the programme revealed how sorely it was needed. “The fact that more than 1 million people submitted applications shows just how necessary this recognition of rights and responsibilities was,” he said. Sánchez said Spain needed immigration to grow economically, to tackle its demographic crisis and to finance its welfare state. “Without immigration, Spain’s GDP would be 19% lower in 2050,” he said. “And what does that mean in business terms? It means, for example, that 90,000 bars would have to close, that 50,000 primary and secondary classrooms would find themselves without students, and that around 220,000 farms would disappear.” He added that without immigration, Spain would be “poorer, emptier, weaker and without the resources to fund its welfare state”. Although similar extraordinary regularisation programmes have been introduced by previous socialist and conservative governments in Spain, the latest scheme has been fiercely criticised by the rightwing People’s party (PP) and the far-right Vox party. The PP has suggested the move will overwhelm Spain’s public services, while Vox has claimed that Sánchez is trying to bring about “the demographic, social, labour and electoral transformation of Spain”. The PP regional governments of Valencia and Aragón have lodged appeals against the regularisation programme. On Tuesday, the court said it was considering asking the European court of justice whether aspects of the Spanish government’s regularisation decree could be at odds with EU law. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the PP, has