Against the reactionary current and anti-immigration discourse sweeping the globe, from the raids against migrants organized by U.S. President Donald Trump to the massive demonstrations fueled by the far-right in the United Kingdom, Spain has announced it will approve its ninth regularization of migrants.
The Council of Ministers approved last Tuesday the start of the processing for the extraordinary regularization aimed at migrants who are already residing irregularly in the country.
The difficulty in determining how many people actually live in an irregular situation in Spain complicates access to official data. In the absence of such data, a report prepared by Funcas, an analysis center dedicated to economic and social research, estimates that **840,000 people** live in our country without having been able to regularize their administrative situation.
This same report states that currently nearly two out of every ten foreigners from outside the European Union are in an irregular administrative situation, the highest figure since 2017. With the resulting labor and social precarity that this entails, invisible faces of the system.
The majority of beneficiaries are from Latin America
This document adds that most people in an irregular administrative situation come from the American continent, a total of 760,000 residents. Among them, people arriving from Colombia (around 290,000), Peru (110,000), and Honduras (90,000) stand out. Far behind are people from the African continent (50,000) and the Asian continent (15,000) or non-EU Europeans (14,000).
Of the people from the African continent, those from Morocco (20,693) and Algeria (17,765) stand out in an irregular administrative situation
The spokesperson for the Regularización Ya in the Canary Islands movement, Redwan Baddou, spoke on the morning of this past Tuesday on Radio Lanzarote-Onda Cero to explain that behind the agreement reached between Podemos and the Government of Spain to move forward with this massive regularization of migrants, is the movement he is part of.
The Regularización Ya movement managed to collect 700,000 signatures across the country to achieve regularization for migrants in an irregular administrative situation in Spain. However, it has not been until now that this initiative is closer to moving forward.
"It is going to be a truly beneficial measure and it will allow us to reset the clock in a way," Baddou indicated during his speech. "The definitive text is ready and now it's a bureaucratic matter," Baddou statedThe Spanish Government states that "the majority" of people who can access this process work in conditions of "informality or administrative precariousness".
Who will be able to apply for regularization?
Among the requirements that irregular migrants wishing to avail themselves of this regularization will have to meet is their entry into Spain: it must have been before December 31, 2025. In addition, they will have to prove a stay of more than five months in the country, which can be validated until June 30, 2026.
For example, people who entered on December 31 will be able to submit their application starting in May.
People who are not asylum seekers must meet one of the following three requirements: have worked or have a work contract, belong to a family with school-aged children or elderly people with disabilities, or be in a vulnerable situation.
What does it imply?
From the moment they request their regularization, the Spanish Government will have 15 days to admit it for processing. From its admission for processing, applicants will be entitled to a provisional work permit, which gives them access to an employment contract. In contrast, ordinary regularization processes have much longer timelines.
When does it start?
The Ministry of Migration estimates that the application submission period will open in early April and can be extended until June 30, 2026.
Is this the first extraordinary regularization to take place?
Although extraordinary regularizations have usually come from socialist governments, there were also two during the presidency of José María Aznar (PP)
Data released by Migrations shows that Felipe González (PSOE) carried out four regularization processes for migrants between 1986 and 1996. In these, a total of 174,011 applications were accepted. Following this, during the government of José María Aznar (PP), 503,327 were regularized in two periods between 2000 and 2001.
The last extraordinary regularization was carried out by José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE) in 2005, when the Executive granted regularization to 576,506 people. In contrast, none was carried out during Mariano Rajoy's term.