Even as the European Union prepares measures to make it easier for member states to remove migrants from the bloc, Spain has approved an amnesty that will allow at least 500,000 immigrants to regularize their residency status.

In a context of increasing hostility toward immigrants in Europe and the United States, Spain stands out as one of the few states that remains welcoming to migrants. The measure enacted on Jan. 27 is the most generous immigration amnesty in the country’s history. Its passage is also a tribute to the work of the Catholic Church in Spain to help the country welcome migrating people.

The amnesty measure was issued as a royal decree—similar to an executive order in the United States—but it largely takes up the text of a popular legislative initiative, another Spanish legal mechanism that allows the public to directly propose legislation by collecting signatures of support. If any of these efforts reach 500,000 signatures, the Spanish Parliament must take the initiatives up as bills, though it is not obliged to pass them into law.

The Spanish Episcopal Conference called the move an “act of social justice and recognition of so many migrants who, through their work, have long contributed to the development of [Spain].”

Fernando Redondo, director of the department of immigration at the Spanish bishops’ conference, pointed out that Spain has long been one of the most flexible countries in the world regarding irregular immigrants, providing a number of options to legal residency. The current amnesty effort represents the seventh extraordinary regularization of immigrants in the last 40 years of Spanish democracy.

The mass deportation effort in the United States stands as the diametrical opposite of how Spain has chosen to deal with its large population of irregular residents. Spain’s tradition of generosity on immigration has proven economically and socially beneficial for the country, according to Mr. Redondo.

Economic reports at the national and international levels from respected entities like the Bank of Spain, the United Nations Economic and Social Council and the International Monetary Fund, he wrote in an email to America, demonstrate “how part of the growth and prosperity of the Spanish economy is due to immigration.”

Spain already has a legal mechanism—its arriago, or “roots” law—that allows those irregularly residing in the country to legalize their status. But many immigrants fall into legal lacunae or encounter difficulties meeting documentation or income requirements, even those who have resided in Spain for years and have not committed any crimes.

The think tank Funcas puts the number of immigrants in Spain without legal status at 840,000, about 17 percent of the foreign-born population in Spain. (The count does not include residents from other European Union member states.) The decree allows immigrants who have lived in Spain for at least five months as of Dec. 31, 2025, and who have no criminal record to apply for a renewable one-year residency permit.

Ana Abril from Cáritas Española wrote in an email that the special amnesty had enjoyed wide support in Spanish society because it responded to multiple social and economic needs.

“There are demographic reasons, reasons related to economic growth, reasons linked to employment,” she said. “Everything pointed to the fact that regularization was necessary.”

Immigrants: Spain’s engine of economic growth

According to Mr. Redondo, immigrants make up 20 percent of the active workforce in Spain. He added that in Spain, as in the United States and many other receiving nations, immigrant workers contribute more in taxes than they receive in welfare benefits and public services. Since the end of the Covid-19 pandemic, Spain has enjoyed above-average economic growth compared with other European countries, and immigration has been a major contributor to that.

Immigrants have become fundamental to several labor sectors in Spain like agriculture, hospitality, elder care and construction. Because they are overwhelmingly below the age of 50, immigrants also help offset Spain’s “demographic winter,” caused by dropping birth rates among native-born Spaniards. Mr. Redondo also lauded the diversity and vitality immigrants bring to Spanish society, including to the Catholic Church.

Many contemporary immigrants are coming to Spain from Latin America. In fact, according to Mr. Redondo, historically only the United States has received more Latin American immigrants than Spain. Noting the increasingly fractious approach to immigration in the United States, he said, “It’s easy to deduce that many people who had initially thought to go to the U.S. would instead go to Spain.”

Fabian Barrero, 38, moved to Spain from Columbia almost two years ago with his wife and now 5-year-old son because of social unrest in his homeland. After considering going to Canada to continue university studies, the couple decided to try Spain instead. His family first entered Spain on a tourist visa and found they enjoyed Spain and its culture. They remained.

To support themselves, Mr. Barrero and his wife have been doing informal and freelance work and occasionally tapping into assistance from Caritas and other charitable organizations. They have been waiting for the right circumstances to legalize their residency.

Work on the popular initiative for immigrant amnesty began in 2020. Hundreds of civic and religious groups signed on, including 84 Catholic organizations, among them Caritas Spain, the Jesuit Refugee Service and the Spanish bishops’ conference. The campaign in the end gathered more than 700,000 signatures, the largest show of support for any popular initiative in Spain. Parliament started to move the idea of an amnesty for irregular residents through the formal legislative process in April 2024. But after that, momentum on the proposal faltered.

In June 2025, Archbishop Luis Argüello, president of the Spanish bishops’ conference and head of the Archdiocese of Valladolid in central Spain, met with leaders of the country’s two main parties in the Congress of Deputies, the lower house of the Spanish Parliament, to urge them to move the amnesty idea forward. Archbishop Argüello said at that time that the church intervened in Congress not to advance a political project but to respond to the needs of the immigrant community and the demands of the Spanish people. Just getting the issue before the Parliament, he said, was a valuable civic achievement.

The initiative reached Parliament with the support of every party except for the far-right party Vox, the third largest parliamentary bloc, which staunchly opposed it. In the end, no parties made an effort to move it forward and the initiative was simply allowed to expire during the 2025 legislative year, leading to the Sánchez government’s decision to push the amnesty through as a royal decree.

That move came on the heels of yet another political crisis. Mr. Sánchez’s government is facing tough questions because of a devastating rail accident on Jan. 18 that killed 45 people after two high-speed trains collided. The amnesty decree went through eight days after the accident, provoking a flurry of media reports and public debate; critics of Mr. Sánchez charged that this was intended to divert attention from the government’s responsibility for the rail tragedy.

As elections approach, a backlash against immigrants?

The government’s critics say the use of a royal decree to effect the amnesty represents a stretch of executive power. Opponents of the amnesty will likely challenge the legitimacy of the decree in court. But Archbishop Argüello welcomed the decree as a “a recognition of human dignity, an opportunity to collaborate in the common good.” He said that the grassroots, ecumenical work of the initiative that paved a way for the decree is an important sign of the health of Spanish democracy.

The Spanish public has proved more supportive of immigrants than the people of other European nations in recent years, but a current of anti-immigrant sentiment has also become evident.

The decree has created a new opportunity for many on the right to express their indignation over rising immigrant numbers in Spain. Vox party leader Santiago Abascal, commenting on the social media platform X, called for “repatriations, deportations, and remigration,” invoking the Great Replacement Theory—the idea that immigrants are being deliberately drawn to Europe to “replace” native-born workers—and accusing Mr. Sánchez of “hating the Spanish people.”

The church in Spain has worked hard on several fonts to combat fear of immigrants, even as it is often stoked by some politicians.

In 2024 historic numbers of people crossed the Atlantic from Africa to reach the Spanish archipelago of the Canary Islands. Shelters were opened across Spain to accommodate the new arrivals, many of whom were seeking asylum.

When local media reported that one such center would open at the site of a shuttered hotel on the outskirts of León, a small city on the Camino de Santiago, some nearby residents became alarmed, even threatening to block the buses transporting the migrants. The center was operated by the Hospitallers of St. John of God. Staff of the proposed immigrant housing took the initiative to meet with both the municipal government and neighborhood groups, listening to concerns and explaining how the center would operate.

“Part of the community initially expressed concern about the unknown,” Dolores Queiro, coordinator of the center, wrote in an email to America. “But with the passage of time, and thanks to constant work, mutual respect and collective commitment, the initial distrust gave way to neighborhood collaboration, support networks and gestures of solidarity that moved us and showed that hospitality transforms both those who receive it and those who offer it.”

In the end, individuals and local organizations—from León’s rugby team to the parents’ association of a nearby elementary school—collaborated with the center’s staff to assist migrants as their asylum claims moved through the system. One of the organizers of the opposition told local media that the residents of the center had proven to be respectful and “good people.”

The center carried on for almost a year without any reported incidents of disruption or problems for the wider community, closing in May 2025 after its residents had been processed. During that time, 190 migrants were granted asylum, and of those, 120 had already found work, according to Ms. Queiro. In total, 455 migrants passed through the center at that time.

Catholic communication

The work of Cope radio (for Cadena de Ondas Populares Españolas, the People’s Radiowaves of Spain Network) is also worth recognizing. Founded in the 1960s to unite the various diocesan radio stations around the country, it now serves as a mainstream, general broadcast media agency backed by the Spanish bishops’ conference and dedicated to Catholic principles. Cope’s radio station is one of the most-listened-to in the country, with a lineup of award-winning journalists, many with years of experience in other mainstream media groups.

Numerous articles published on Cope’s website combat anti-immigrant rhetoric coming from Spain’s far right. One recent article, “The Data Dismantles the Myth: Immigration Does Not Trigger Crime in Spain,” took on the notion promoted by Vox politicians that immigration is increasing crime in Spain, finding that the most violent crimes were disproportionately committed by native-born Spaniards.

While not underplaying assimilation challenges, Cope frequently highlights stories of the successful integration of immigrants and their positive contributions to Spanish society.

The Barrero family welcomes the amnesty, but in their case, it has proved unnecessary. The family welcomed the birth of another son in January. His birthright citizenship creates a pathway to legal residency for the rest of the family.

Now “I’m looking forward to getting a formal job,” Mr. Barrero said, adding that Latin Americans in Spain are resourceful and self-reliant by habit as they come from countries without the robust welfare infrastructure characteristic of European states.

As more families like the Barreros regularize their status, it is likely that church efforts to recognize the dignity of immigrants will remain important. Spain is in the midst of a number of regional elections with general elections at the national level anticipated by 2027.

As recent elections have shown and polls continue to predict, Vox is gaining political ground, making immigration a prominent issue and driving the center right in Spain to harden its position on immigration. For better or for worse, immigration will remain a controversial and prominent political topic, with the dignity and rights of immigrants regularly called into question.

Bridget Ryder is a freelance writer based in Spain.