Spain will grant residency and work permits to about 300,000 migrants living in the country illegally each year for the next three years, the country’s migration minister said Wednesday.
The policy according to reports will take effect next May and aims to expand the country’s ageing workforce. Spain has remained largely open to receiving migrants even as other European nations seek to tighten their borders to illegal crossings and asylum seekers.
The Migration Minister in an engagement with reporters indicated that Spain needs around 250,000 registered foreign workers a year to maintain its welfare state.
Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has often described his government’s migration policies as a means to combat the country’s low birthrate.
This move by the Spanish government follows a visit in August to three West African nations in an effort to address irregular migration to Spain’s Canary Islands.
The new policy, approved Tuesday by Sánchez’s leftist minority coalition government, simplifies administrative procedures for short and long-term visas and provides migrants with additional labor protections. It extends a visa previously offered to job-seekers for three months to one year.