Political parties now have up to two months to amend the proposal, decide how to legalize the hundreds of thousands of illegal migrants living in Spain, and make a final vote.
The #RegularizacionYa platform of around 900 rights groups and other non-governmental organizations behind the proposal estimates that the number of undocumented migrants in Spain could be close to half a million, around a third of them minors.
The Spanish Catholic Church called on political parties to support the legislative proposal in a statement over the weekend. The conservative opposition People’s Party backed the proposal after a last-minute change of heart.
Despite the 600,000 signatures and the broad consensus among the political parties, the public appears less convinced. In 2022, EU polling (EP Autumn 2022 Survey: Parlemter) found that 73% of the Spanish citizens surveyed were worried about immigration in their country.
The anti-immigration party Vox was the only one to vote against, with 310 votes out of 343 issued supporting the start of the legislative process.
The Socialist-led leftist ruling coalition initially expressed doubts about the initiative but ended up backing it.
Spain adopted a similar measure in 2005, when a previous Socialist administration granted an amnesty to around 800,000 people without documentation.
In March, Spain registered 21 million legal workers, an all-time high, with a large contingent of legal immigrants. Recent data compiled by the think-tank Funcas shows that the share of foreigners residing in Spain reached 18.1%, above the EU’s average of 17.1%.
Between 2002 and 2023, Spain’s native population rapidly declined from 95% to just 83%. The Spanish daily El Pais highlighted that 20% of all births in the country are to immigrants.
