How Spain’s PM is opening the country’s door to illegal migrants

Pedro Sánchez’s championing of immigration comes when most of Europe’s leaders are cracking down on illegal migration and calling for tougher measures, including offshore deportation camps. The prime minister has announced sweeping changes to make it easier for migrants, whom he called “the great motor of economic development”, to settle in Spain. Legal requirements will be eased for failed asylum-seekers, who will be able to apply for work papers after six months of residing in Spain, according to a draft of the reform revealed by the newspaper El País. His government will also back a legislative initiative that will give residency to half a million illegal immigrants currently without papers in Spain. Blanca Garcés, a senior research fellow at the Barcelona Centre for International Affairs think-tank, said: “Spain’s position is mixed: it is a total exception within Europe in its policies of regularisation for migrants who are in the country illegally but when it comes to tough borders it was a pioneer with the border fences built around Ceuta and Melilla. “It’s not about whether immigration is good or bad, but about managing immigration properly. The labour market attracts immigrants to precarious jobs, and if you then have a saturated housing market and overloaded social services like Spain’s, conflict will develop.”