While the United States has intensified its efforts to fight immigration and deportation, and European countries are closing their borders one after another, Spain continues to act as an exception.

In late January, Spain’s leftist government approved a royal decree – without a vote in parliament, where it does not have a majority – to legalize several hundred thousand undocumented people already living and working in the country.

In order to be eligible to apply for a one-year renewable residence permit, applicants must have no criminal record and prove that they have been present in Spain for at least five consecutive months prior to December 31, 2025.

Even if there is no official data on the exact number of undocumented people living in Spain, it is estimated that half a million to a million people could affect this measure, which Spain is promoting as a way to ease the lack of jobs in its growing economy.

“I still can’t believe it. I’m torn between joy and the feeling that it can’t be real,” said the 36-year-old Honduran who has been living in Madrid without papers for almost a year and a half. The CBC is not naming him because he does not yet have legal status in Spain and is afraid of retaliation from his employers.

He says he has already applied for asylum but is still waiting. He plans to apply to this new program for which he is eligible. Until then, he continues to do occasional jobs under the table to send money to his wife and five-year-old daughter, who remain in Honduras.

“During the week I work in construction, and on the weekends I am a dishwasher in a restaurant. It is not easy every day, we are often exploited and we have to accept everything that is asked of us. We have no rights and our wages are very low,” he said.

Almost 90 percent of undocumented migrants in Spain are believed to be from Latin America, primarily Colombia, Peru and Honduras. Since they do not need a visa to enter as tourists, many use this route to then stay illegally in the country, where they speak the same language and share cultural similarities. Since US President Donald Trump returned to the White House, Spain has experienced increase in the arrival of Latin Americans which avoid the United States.

Economic effect

Almost seven million foreign citizens live in Spain — almost 15 percent of its population — according to the latest data. Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez regularly touts the benefits of immigration to explain Spain’s booming economy.

Earth recorded Growth of 2.8 percent in 2025 and saw his unemployment rate falls below 10 percentthe first after the severe economic crisis that the country experienced. After the bursting of the real estate bubble, Spain experienced a crisis from 2008 to 2014 that resulted in bankruptcies, widespread unemployment, the need for government assistance, and long-term social and economic damage.

“Immigration is really one of the reasons for this good economic health,” said Raymond Torres, an economist at the Spanish think-tank Funcas. “The tourism, service and construction sectors are in high demand and dependent on immigration.”

Employers facing persistent labor shortages have welcomed the new regulatory plan. “This is a reality that we have been deploring for a long time in the construction sector,” said Juan Antonio Gómez-Pintado, president of Vía Agora, a real estate development and asset management company.

“The needs are urgent,” he said, referring to Spain’s construction sector, which will need it 700,000 workers more meet current demand. Gómez-Pintado says this measure could greatly help the industry.

In 2005, the country was already regulated for economic reasons almost 600,000 people without documents. This regulation improved migrant employment opportunities, mobility and tax contributions, but did not induce a “call effect” or affect workers of different skills and wages equally, according to studies.

Pressure to legalize undocumented migrants increased during the pandemic, when many migrants continued to work in precarious conditions. Subsequently, more than The legal initiative was signed by 700,000 citizens request their regulation.

In addition to helping alleviate labor shortages, the measure is also intended to help save public finances. Undocumented people have access to health care, which is universal in Spain, even though they do not contribute to social security, Torres explained. “On the one hand, therefore, there is a cost, and on the other, there is no income,” said Torres. Various studies have indeed shown that an undocumented person costs the state more annually but a person with legal status.

This major regulation could lead to other positive effects, Torres said, notably by limiting unfair competition among companies — whose costs vary depending on whether their workforce is registered or not — while offering new professional opportunities.

“Some of these immigrant workers have a much broader skill set. They are sometimes doctors, but they work as domestic workers because of their irregular status. Regulation can allow them to change that,” he said.

‘Overloaded’ system

The Spanish government has announced that regularization applications will begin in April and last until the end of June, ensuring that administrative procedures do not exceed three months. The government wants to be reassuring, and the officials are already warned in recent months about the lack of funds process all applications received by the Spanish immigration system.

“The system is already overloaded. Procedures that should last a few months sometimes take up to a year. It will be a big challenge,” said Eva María Navarrete Parrondo, an immigration lawyer in Madrid.

He says he’s been receiving nearly 400 requests a day since last week’s announcement. “Most of my undeclared clients are already working without proper documentation, mostly in the construction industry. They have high expectations, hoping to be freed from the burden of insecurity and get better working and living conditions,” she said.

Parrondo says he thinks Trump’s mass deportation policy precipitated Spain’s decision to show its contrast.

However, this does not make everyone happy in Spain. The right-wing opposition expressed fear that public services would be overburdened, while the far-right described the announcement as “invasion” countries. They raised this issue at the EU level, which has been ever since answered that it falls under the jurisdiction of the member states.

Prime Minister Sánchez responded to critics of the ua video posted on social networkssaying that Spain had chosen the path of “dignity, community and justice”, and asking: “When did the recognition of rights become something radical?”

Although a Honduran worker interviewed by CBC he says that he sometimes receives remarks that he is not Spanish and does not have documents, he says that the reception he generally receives in Spain is quite good because people know that they need it.

“We are not stealing jobs from the Spanish, we are simply doing the jobs they don’t want to do,” he said. He now has high hopes for this regulation plan. “I can’t wait for this whole nightmare to be over. I hope after that I can bring my daughter and my wife here. This is my biggest dream.”