“The reform of the Regulation of the Organic Law on Immigration represents a step forward. It is always progress, good news, that there are regular routes and stable conditions for the regularization of migrants – such as roots -, that access requirements be made more flexible, but we still see things that worry us,” they point out from the Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance (CEAR). The Council of Ministers agreed this Tuesday to reduce the deadlines and simplify the requirements for regularizing thousands of migrants. It is, as they say, “the most comprehensive and ambitious reform of the last 13 years“, the same as the norm. Social groups assure that the new regulation, “in the absence of knowing the fine print”, runs the risk of “leaving behind many citizens“.
The Government has given the green light to a new review of the immigration lawa text that seeks to “adapt to the current immigration situation”, satisfy the needs of the labor market and respond to the demographic challenge. The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has highlighted the “mainstreaming” of the norm and calculates that, with it, “300,000 people can be regularized each year“between 2025 and 2027. The final text is published this Wednesday in the Official State Gazette (BOE) and will come into force within six months.
Spain intends to mark its own profile with this reform, which arrives in full boom of the anti-immigration policies in Europebut it is “lukewarm”; At least, that is the impression of humanitarian associations. “The document is presented from a business point of view, not from a perspective focused on human rights and fundamental rights of migrants. In addition, it opens the door to complementing several contracts, that is, it encourages multiple employment. This is impossible in sectors such as day laborers or care, we are broken bodies…”, he claims. Edith Espindolaspokesperson for RegularizaciónYA and the Active Domestic Service Association (SEDOAC). The World Bank and the European Commission estimate that about 250,000 migrants per year to sustain the Welfare State.
The rule reduces from three to two years the time that a migrant – in an irregular situation – must have lived in Spain to be able to process a residence permit for “social roots“. The Government will also recognize the “socio-laboral roots” – previously, “labor roots” – to citizens who present a job offer of at least 20 hours per week. The current law set the minimum number of countable hours at 30. “The regulation opens doors that were previously closed with three keys: training, employment and family,” said the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz.
The Government also seeks enhance legal migration pathways and streamline processes such as “rooting” for family or educational reasons. “The objective is to strengthen and expand the access routes to the regularization of migrants who are in Spain, so that can lead a full life as citizens: have rights and have duties,” said the head of the portfolio. The text is “the product of a long listening process” in which employers, unions, autonomous communities, local entities and humanitarian associations have participated. These The latter, in fact, insist on the need to process the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) for the regularization of half a million migrants, a proposal that “does respond to the real needs of the population with an irregular administrative situation.”
Citizens left out of the reform
Spain is “the only country in the European Union that has a figure as important as roots”, a crucial mechanism in times of violence and openly xenophobic policies. The reform, however, leaves certain groups in a kind of legal limbo. “The people seeking international protection They are the most affected; As far as we know, they are outside the regulations. The text facilitates the regularization of people who have had their request denied, but not of those who are pending receiving a response, and in any case, it does so for a period of 12 months and in a transitional regime,” he points out. Elena Muñozstate coordinator of the CEAR legal department.
The reform also “obliges” asylum seekers who can benefit from the changes to “stay six months irregularly“in Spain before accessing the roots, deadlines that can be delayed “even twice as long” depending on the office that processes each request. “The proposal in general terms is positive. The modification of the roots, however, could have been more ambitious, further reducing the length of stay in an irregular situation to regularize the situation of the beneficiaries,” insists Alba Villanueva, deputy coordinator of the Women’s Social Action area in the Conflict Zone.
The people who work in bthat is, without a contract, it is not easy for them to comply with the regulations either. “How are workers without a contract going to do? Employers are not going to want to pay their Social Security. The underground economy is going to leave them out of roots. If the Government does not act here, it will continue to support the mafias against which it claims to fight, but against which no one actually fights,” defends Edith Espíndola, from RegularizaciónYA. The Spanish Commission for Refugee Assistance It also focuses on people who arrive in Spain alone, without family, and on those who “do not study or are enrolled in any course.” The training and family reunification These are two of the “keys” that the Ministry considers to expedite regularization and expedite bureaucratic procedures.
“The new standard could be an important step for the reunification of children of trafficking victimssexual or gender violence, but the opportunity has been lost to include specific measures that favor administrative regularization processes for the women victims of sexist violence or trafficking in human beings, among others,” claim Women in the Conflict Zone. The reform of the immigration law is advancing independently of the Popular Legislative Initiative (ILP) to regularize half a million migrants, admitted for processing by Congress in April.
“Don’t we want migrants to have papers?”
The ILP for the regularization of half a million migrants, promoted by Regularization NOW and another 900 associations, is still in the process of parliamentary negotiation. The DANA catastrophe in Valencia, in fact, reinforces the need to speed up procedures and unravel the matter. The changes in the immigration law and the ultra wave that is sweeping Europe show even more – if possible – the importance of moving forward with the proposal. “The ILP seeks to reach the people who will be left out of this reformresponds to the reality we have in Spain. Why would someone want to overturn a measure that focuses on human rights? Don’t we want all migrants to have papers?” asks Edith Espíndola.
The promoters of the initiative try to squeeze the different groups to vote on the final text in the Lower House before the end of the year. “The ILP continues to be necessary, because it is a parallel issue and we are at a critical moment for human rights, in the midst of the implementation phase of the European pact on migration and asylum. It is important that this reform be applied in the most guaranteeing way possible, not only with positive speeches, but also with public policies and concrete measures that guarantee human rights of migrants,” says Elena Muñoz. The Government has to present in December the first draft of the national plan for the implementation of the new immigration policy and humanitarian associations rely on “making contributions, with the aim of maximizing commitments.”
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