The Spanish government has announced a plan to legalise the status of undocumented migrants, a measure expected to benefit at least half a million people.

Regularisation will be available to foreign nationals who do not have a criminal record and can prove they lived in Spain for at least five months prior to 31 December 2025.

"This is an historic day for our country," said Elma Saiz, Spain's minister of inclusion, social security and migration.

The measure will provide beneficiaries with an initial one-year residence permit, which can then be extended. Requests for legalisation are expected to begin in April and the process will remain open until the end of June.

"We are reinforcing a migratory model based on human rights, integration, co-existence and which is compatible with economic growth and social cohesion," Saiz said.

Spain has seen a large influx of migrants in recent years, mainly from Latin America.

The conservative think-tank Funcas found that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain had risen from 107,409 in 2017 to 837,938 in 2025 – an eight-fold increase.

The highest number of undocumented arrivals currently living in Spain are believed to be from Colombia, Peru and Honduras.

Spain's socialist-led coalition government has been an outlier on this issue among the larger European nations, underlining the importance of migrants for the economy.

The country has been outperforming the other main EU economies in recent years, posting expected growth of close to 3% in 2025.

Unemployment, a longstanding weakness of the Spanish economy, has dipped below 10% for the first time since 2008, according to figures released on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has described immigrants as representing "wealth, development and prosperity" for Spain, pointing to their contribution to the social security system.

The government and parties on the left have also emphasised the need to treat migrants in a humane way.

"Providing rights is the answer to racism," said Irene Montero, of the far-left Podemos party and a former minister in a coalition government with the Socialists.

She has campaigned for this measure, which followed an agreement between the party and the government. A civic legislative proposal, calling for a mass migrant regularisation, received the support of around 700,000 people but had been languishing in parliament.

This measure will be approved by royal decree, meaning it does not require parliamentary approval.

It is the first large-scale migrant regularisation in Spain for two decades.

Several such initiatives, by governments of both the Socialists and the conservative People's Party (PP), legalised the status of an estimated half a million migrants between 1986 and 2005.

However, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, leader of the PP, said the latest mass legalisation would "increase the pull effect and overwhelm our public services".

Pepa Millán, spokeswoman for the far-right Vox, said the initiative "attacks our identity", adding that the party would appeal before the Supreme Court in a bid to block it. (BBC)

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