Spain changes the rules for “undocumented” immigrants, a measure that can favor Argentines

In Spain, undocumented foreigners will be able to regularize their situation to work: those who have lived here for two years will be able to obtain residency if they are trained in a sector of the Spanish labor market that needs manpower.

The decision is part of amendment of the Immigration Regulations approved Tuesday by the Cabinet of the PSOE-Podemos coalition government during the weekly cabinet meeting.

“A new figure of roots is created, roots of professionwhich will allow immigrants who have been in Spain for two years and wish to access training in particularly deficient professions that they can carry out “, explained the Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, José Luis Escrivá, at a press conference.

A few weeks ago, Escrivá himself acknowledged that immigrants arriving in Spain in an irregular situation it takes, on average, seven and a half years to obtain a residence permit and, from there, he looks for work.

With this reform, immigrants who have been in Spain for at least two years and who have worked – regularly or irregularly – during a verifiable six-month period.

lack of manpower

The initiative, which aims to pave the way for foreigners to work legally in Spain, also has an underlying motivation: the immediate incorporation of work in sectors such as agriculturehospitality, construction and transport, punished by the abandonment of Spanish workers and eager to hire new employees.

The hiring at the origin, as is done now with precarious workers, explained the Minister of Migration, will be extended to construction and transport.

“There will be a catalog of particularly requested occupations so that contracts can be generated at the source, ”said Escrivá.

According to a survey by the Carlos III University of Madrid and the PorCausa Foundation, there were between 390,000 and 470,000 undocumented people in Spain at the end of 2019. According to the study, the Argentines numbered 19,200.

The majority – four out of five – come from Central and South America: 60 percent of illegal immigrants came from Colombia, Venezuela and Honduras.

“Now, the most recent figure we manage is between 470,000 and 514,000 irregular peopler. We are talking about half a million migrants ”, he says Clarione Gonzalo Fanjul, research director of the PorCausa Foundation, specializing in migration issues.

“About 150,000 are minors. The overwhelming majority of the rest are people of working age and working in the underground economy, ”she adds.

For the researcher, “it is possible the most important measure that this government has implemented in terms of migration ”.

And he underlines: “There was a lot of noise about what was happening in the Canary Islands, with the arrival of immigrants in the Strait of Gibraltar, from Afghanistan or Ukraine, but in reality, when we talk about migration, we are talking about workers, of a population that in Spain has many problems working legally, despite Spain desperately needing the arrival of many more workers from abroad ”.

“What does this measure do, in part, is to facilitate this arrival. It has to be evaluated positively, ”says Fanjul.

“He speaks of the contract at the origin, which is a contractual model designed for some sectors such as agriculture, although it could be designed for others, but they are models of temporary and circular migration, that is, you want people to come but then return. “, Explains.

“This measure facilitates hiring at source and guarantees workers’ rights. But there are many others who would like to come and not necessarily temporarily. And those are the majority of those who find themselves in an irregular situation in our country today, ”says Fanjul.

Fanjul points out that this reform facilitates the integration of these workers through the rooting system.

regularization

“When you have been in our country for too long and you meet certain conditions, there are several ways to root. One is family, because you are the partner of someone who has papers. Or work. Now they introduce a new form of grounding which is training. If you are willing to enter a government training program in a sector that the Spanish economy needs, You can stay“, He adds.

“This, in fact, is a secret regularization. Hundreds of thousands of people could benefit from it, ”the researcher points out.

Minister Escrivá also made other promises: “We will modernize the requirements foraccess to self-employment up to now complex and demanding for foreigners “.

Furthermore, foreign students of Spanish institutes and universities will be able, with the reform, Combine your studies with work – They will be able to work a maximum of 30 hours per week – which, until now, was not allowed, with some exceptions.

“This will make it easier for 50,000 foreigners to finish their studies,” Escrivá said.

“The goal is to modernize the migration model in order to promote regular and safe migration in all circumstances,” he added.

However, the reform your ministry is promoting to include foreigners in the Spanish labor market will only affect immigration regulations and not the law. it implies that its approval in Congress is inevitablescene of grueling debates for the coalition government.

PB