With most European leaders speaking more durable about immigration amid an increase in far-right populism and Trump administration warnings that they may face “civilizational erasure” until they tighten their borders, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez stands aside.
The Iberian nation has taken in hundreds of thousands of individuals from Latin America and Africa in recent times, and the leftist Sánchez often extols the monetary and social advantages that immigrants who legally come to Spain convey to the eurozone’s fourth-largest economic system.
Spain’s alternative, Sánchez usually says, is between “being an open and prosperous country or a closed and poor one.”
His phrases stand in stark distinction to different Western leaders, and to date, his wager appears to be paying off. Spain’s economic system has grown quicker than some other EU nation for a second yr in a row, due partially to newcomers boosting its ageing workforce.
“Today, Spain’s progress and strong economic situation owe much to the contribution of the migrants who have come to Spain to develop their life projects,” Sánchez stated in July after anti-migrant clashes rocked a small southern Spanish city.
Europe’s shifting temper
Sánchez’s immigration method, together with his remarks about immigrants’ contributions to Spanish society, is according to these of the nation’s previous progressive governments, stated Anna Terrón Cusi, a senior fellow on the Migration Coverage Institute suppose tank who beforehand labored on immigration coverage for a number of Spanish governments, together with Sánchez’s.
“What has changed a lot internally is that there is now very anti-immigration rhetoric from Vox, especially against Muslim immigrants,” she stated, referring to the far-right Spanish celebration that has been polling third, behind the ruling Socialists and center-right Individuals’s Get together. “But Sánchez, unlike other European leaders, responds by directly and strongly confronting this narrative.”
Centrist leaders throughout Europe are dealing with rising strain from anti-immigrant far-right events, regardless of a big lower in unlawful border crossings into the EU over the previous two years.
In France, the place the once-ostracized Nationwide Rally far-right celebration has constructed assist, centrist President Emmanuel Macron now speaks about what he refers to as “the migration problem.”
“If we don’t want the National Rally to come to power, we must address the problem that feeds it,” Macron stated final yr after France handed new restrictions that he described as “a shield” wanted to “fight illegal immigration” whereas serving to to “better integrate” migrant employees.
Whereas working to be German chancellor this yr, Friedrich Merz vowed to toughen the nation’s migration coverage. Days after he was elected, Germany boosted its border safety efforts. And in current weeks, it has offered new figures suggesting an increase in deportations of rejected asylum-seekers and a drop within the variety of new asylum-seekers.
Political dangers in Spain
Sánchez’s progressive authorities, too, has seen pro-immigration proposals stall.
Final yr, it amended Spain’s immigration regulation to facilitate residency and work permits to a whole bunch of hundreds of immigrants residing within the nation illegally. On the time, Migration Minister Elma Saiz stated Spain wanted so as to add as many as 300,000 taxpaying overseas employees per yr to maintain its state advantages, together with for pensions, well being care and unemployment. Critics, although, stated the adjustments to the regulation had many shortcomings and even harm some migrants as an alternative.
A extra bold amnesty proposal later additionally endorsed by Sánchez’ progressive authorities stalled in Parliament as a result of its thorny politics.
“There were some voices that pointed out that (the amnesty) could have a very big social impact,” stated Cecilia Estrada Villaseñor, an immigration researcher on the Pontifical Comillas College in Madrid. She added, “there is a European context that comes into play. We belong to the European Union, and right now the balance lies in a different place.”
Curbing migrant arrivals by boat from Africa
Sánchez’s authorities, along with the EU, has additionally paid African governments to assist cease migrants, from reaching Spanish shores, together with many would-be asylum-seekers.
Most immigrants in Spain enter the nation legally by airplane. However the comparatively few who arrive on Spanish shores in smugglers’ boats dominate headlines and are routinely held up by far-right politicians and media as an indication of what’s mistaken with the federal government’s stance.
Final yr, amid steep rises within the variety of folks making the damaging sea crossing from Africa’s west coast to the Canary Islands, Sánchez traveled to Mauritania with EU Fee President Ursula von der Leyen, who pledged 210 million euros (round $247 million) of EU cash to assist the northwestern African nation curb migration.
The efforts appear to be working. Migrant arrivals to the Canary Islands this yr are down 60%, which even the federal government’s critics say is due to governments in Africa stepping up border controls.
However rights advocates blame Sánchez’s insurance policies for the violent deaths of migrants in Spain and overseas, such because the 2022 flashpoint within the Spanish enclave of Melilla, in North Africa. In that occasion, sub-Saharan migrants and asylum-seekers scaled a border fence, which sparked clashes with authorities wherein 23 migrants died.
In an interview with The Related Press every week later, Sánchez defended how Moroccan and Spanish police responded, calling the try “an attack on Spain’s borders.”
In response to questions from the AP, a spokesperson from the prime minister’s workplace stated, “our migration policy is effective and responsible.”
Latin American migrants
Spain is house to hundreds of thousands of migrants from Latin America, who’re fast-tracked for Spanish citizenship and usually combine simply due to the shared language.
Greater than 4 million folks from Latin America had been residing in Spain legally in 2024, in accordance with authorities figures. The present main nations of origin for Spain’s immigrants are Morocco, Colombia and Venezuela.
Spain’s central financial institution estimates the nation will want round 24 million working-age immigrants over the subsequent 30 years to maintain the steadiness between employees and retirees-plus-children.
However economists say Spain’s hundreds of thousands of immigrants have added gas to a different political fireplace — the nation’s more and more unaffordable housing market. José Boscá, an economist on the College of Valencia, stated alongside pressures from overtourism and short-term leases in cities, Spain hasn’t constructed sufficient housing to accommodate its new residents.
“If you integrate so many people, but you don’t build more housing, there could be problems,” Boscá stated.
In response, Sánchez’s authorities has pledged to fund extra building — particularly of public housing — and in addition floated measures to crack down on rich foreigners shopping for second properties within the nation.
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Related Press reporters Kirsten Grieshaber in Berlin, Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Renata Brito in Barcelona, Spain, contributed to this story.
