On 27th January 2026, the Spanish government announced plans to regularise up to 500,000 undocumented migrants. Between 2017 and 2025, the number of undocumented migrants in Spain rose from just over 100,000 to 838,000. Most undocumented migrants are people who entered Spain legally, going on to overstay their visas and find cash-in-hand work in the country’s ‘black economy’, many from country’s former colonial holdings across Latin America and North Africa.
The move will bring relief to many of the people living and working in the country without papers. Edith Espínola, a spokesperson for the Regularisation Now! Movement, said,
“Regularisation makes you feel like a citizen and a person . . . It stops you feeling like an object and it lets you fight for your rights . . . [It will allow] people to work, study and live with dignity. It means you can feel a little bit more human from the moment that you have that plastic card”
Migration Policy Institute Europe deputy director Jasmijn Slootjes said that Spain’s decision was partly in response to fears that the ageing native-born population won’t be capable of sustaining the kind of workforce the country needs to thrive.
“Here were a lot of skill shortages, labour shortages, and de facto a lot of irregular migrants are working, although in informal work. And through regularising you can, of course, get more tax payments, and you also get better matching [to] their skills – because people can actually work at their skill level.”
The policy decision was made in response to a citizen-backed proposal signed by 700,000 Spanish citizens and supported by hundreds of civil society groups, including the Catholic Church. The government were aware that the result will also benefit their economy in the long term at a time of aging demographics. Addressing parliament in October 2024, the prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, said the country was at a demographic crossroads and needed migration to grow its economy and sustain its welfare state.
Data from the OECD suggests that the working age population is on the decline in many European countries. Spain represents one of the most dramatic cases. Research shows that migrants, whether regularised or not, contribute a great deal to their host communities and could contribute even more if they were all allowed to do so legally. In Spain, the Por Causa research centre found that the net fiscal contribution of an immigrant household was already 75% higher than the average Spanish household, mainly because the average age of immigrant households is much younger.
Where there’s a will there’s a way.
Why Spain is offering amnesty to 500,000 undocumented migrants – France 24
Spain plans to give 500,000 undocumented migrants legal status – BBC News
Spain approves decree to regularise half a million undocumented migrants | Spain | The Guardian