Monday 26 January was a historic day for Spain: the Council of Ministers approved a measure for the regularization of 500,000 irregular migrants, which would allow legal recognition and therefore the possibility of working and residing legally in the country, also accessing social security measures. This decree, with a strong symbolic and political value, goes against the trend of the crackdown on migration made by numerous European countries. It aims to counteract the aging population and give a strong boost to the Spanish economy. According to INE, the Spanish National Institute of Statistics, in fact, 3.58 million migrants were already working in Spain in 2025, equal to 16% of the country’s workforce.
What does the decree consist of and what are the requirements
According to the decree, the requirements for applying for a residence permit are as follows:
- Absence of criminal record
- Have arrived in Spain before 31 December 2025
- Demonstrate that you have lived and resided in the country for at least 5 continuous months
On this point, the government chaired by Pedro Sànchez has clarified that the residence requirement can be documented not only with registration in the municipal registry office or with rental contracts, but also with proof of remittance payments sent to families of origin abroad, medical records or medical tests, and transport tickets. This is because it often happens that people without documents encounter greater difficulty in registering in the registry office or in having legally valid and demonstrable contracts.
Applications can be submitted in the time window from April to June 2026. If the application is accepted, a temporary residence permit will be granted with which the applicant will be able to immediately start working legally “from day one in any sector and in any part of the country” and access fundamental services, such as healthcare. He will then have a residence permit lasting one year, renewable, at the end of which a standard permit can be requested according to normal immigration regulations. Furthermore, the applicant will be able to request family reunification with his children who will be able to live in the country and reside for an initial period of five years.
In addition to irregular migrants, those who applied for asylum before December 31st will also be able to benefit from this measure. An important point is that, when the application for regularization is submitted, any repatriation proceedings or expulsion measures are suspended, both for administrative reasons and for possible irregular work.
The process and approval of the law
This regularization arose from a popular legislative initiative that had collected around 700,000 signatures, presented to Parliament in April 2024 and then supported by the PSOE together with Podemos, as well as hundreds of civil society groups.
Pedro Sànchez’s government has underlined the strong value not only social and defense of fundamental human rights, but also economic, in a country where immigration is a fundamental driver for production. Most of these workers come from Latin America and neighboring North Africa, particularly Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador and Morocco. Furthermore, Spain also struggles with a strong aging population and with a social security system put to the test by this phenomenon.
The measure was approved by royal decree, through the emergency procedure. A Royal Decree in Spain is a regulatory provision of lower rank than a law, which is issued by the Government (Council of Ministers) and approved by the King. It adopts urgent measures, which have immediate application and which halve the normal bureaucratic and administrative times, as they do not require parliamentary approval.
However, this is not the first regularization process carried out in Spain: the first took place during the socialist government of President Felipe Gonzalez (1982-1996); subsequently, under the government of José María Aznar (Partido Popular), three regularization processes were launched, in 1996, 2000 and 2001, benefiting over 520,000 people; while the last one dates back to 2005, under the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE), and is considered the one that benefited the greatest number of people, over 570,000.
What are the current migration policies in Italy
As far as our country is concerned, the law that regulates immigration is the Bossi-Fini law of 30 July 2002, which has undergone some significant changes in the last ten years:
- The Security Decree or Salvini Decree of 2018 which, among the various measures, abolished the status of humanitarian protection, converting it into special protection, according to more restrictive requirements than the previous one. In fact, humanitarian protection was activated in special circumstances such as: health reasons, absence of ties with the family of origin, environmental disasters, serious political instability in the countries of origin, violence or violation of human rights.
- The Cutro Decree of 2023, with which, among others, the possibility of requesting the conversion of the residence permit for special protection into a residence permit for work reasons was eliminated.
Furthermore, the government chaired by Giorgia Meloni has strengthened the CPRs (Repatriation Centres), structures used to manage migratory flows, starting in 2024 the construction of CPRs in Albania, in particular those of Shëngjin and Gjadër, and which were at the center of great political debate in 2025. The CPRs are structures created to welcome irregular migrants undergoing repatriation procedures, but in fact they were a few hundred migrants were transferred to Albania, then brought back to Italy after the Rome Court declared the validation of detention in the centers to be cancelled.
Italy’s migration policy is part of a broader European framework, in which the Member States of the Union are supporting increasingly severe measures on immigration, with the entry into force of the new Pact for Migration and Asylum, adopted in 2024 and in force from June 2026, which provides for a series of measures to strengthen the EU’s external borders; the acceleration of repatriation procedures; list and agreements shared with third countries defined as safe, to which to send irregular migrants and the creation of external centres, called hubthrough which to manage incoming flows into Europe.
