MADRID — Nearly 1.2 million migrants in Spain have applied for legal residency under a major government regularization program, highlighting the country’s more open approach to migration compared to much of Europe, according to ORF News.
Migration State Secretary Pilar Cancela announced that a total of 1,174,978 applications were submitted before the deadline this week. More than half have already been processed, she said.
The program, launched in April, allows undocumented migrants to apply for legal residence and work permits valid within Spain. Authorities now have three months to review the remaining applications and decide whether to approve or reject them.
To qualify, applicants had to prove they had been living in Spain for at least five months as of January 1 and must not have a criminal record.
Most applicants came from Latin America, accounting for 67 percent of the total, while 22.9 percent were from African countries.
Spain’s left-leaning government, led by Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, has taken a different path from many European Union nations, which have tightened migration policies in recent years. Sánchez has defended the program as a “good decision for our economy,” while acknowledging that integration remains a challenge.
The initiative has received strong backing from parts of Spain’s business community, which sees it as a way to address labor shortages. However, conservative and far-right opposition parties have sharply criticized the move, arguing that it could encourage irregular migration.
