A high unemployment rate, but a cruel lack of manpower… The Spanish government on Tuesday adopted a reform facilitating the use of immigration in the country, which is facing a shortage of personnel in several sectors of activity, including tourism and agriculture, despite a high unemployment rate.
This reform, adopted by the Council of Ministers, provides for “several far-reaching measures”, intended to “encourage regular immigration, orderly and safe”, assured the Minister of Social Security José Luis Escriva during a press conference. The text notably facilitates the regularization of undocumented immigrants who have been present on Spanish territory for more than two years. They will thus be able to hold a job legally or benefit from training in sectors where there are many unfilled jobs.
Facilitate the granting of work visas
The project also simplifies access to the labor market for foreign students, who will be authorized to work up to 30 hours a week during their studies, then to enter the labor market following their training without having necessarily lived three years beforehand. in Spain. Finally, it promotes family reunification and the granting of work visas in sectors of activity under pressure, with a simplification and standardization of the administrative procedures to be carried out.
These measures will “improve the Spanish migratory model and its procedures, which are often slow and unsuitable”, which generates “long periods of irregularity” for immigrants, “with high social and economic costs” for Spain, underlines the ministry.
Spain, which has one of the highest unemployment rates in the euro zone, at 13.65%, has nevertheless been confronted for several years with a shortage of labor in certain sectors of activity, such as the hotel industry, agriculture, construction or transport. This phenomenon, which has increased since the Covid-19 pandemic, is regularly pointed out by companies in these sectors, who say they are struggling to recruit employees, which limits their growth prospects.
