Nobody wants to have a civilized conversation about immigration.
I mean seriously talk about the pros and cons.
On side of the aisle, you’ve got people who can see no downside whatsoever to mass immigration. They’re the ones out protesting against law enforcement in the US, they’re the Instagram activists sharing hot take after hot take.
If you so much as suggest to these people that immigration might have some downsides, they’ll flip out and start calling you a fascist.
On the other side, you’ve got people who see only the arguments against immigration.
They want to deport everyone and return to some golden age of low crime and full employment that probably never existed to begin with.
Then, somewhere in the middle, there’s me.
My life as an undocumented migrant
I have some insight into immigration because I moved abroad over 20 years ago.
Specifically, I overstayed my tourist visa in Madrid, and figured I’d just work something out later.
I did work something out, but it took about seven years, during which time I was (as the saying goes) an illegal immigrant… or perhaps an “undocumented migrant” if you prefer that phrase.
(I’m seeing that that’s the phrase most commonly used in articles about todays topic, so let’s go with it.)
Either way, I don’t take these issues lightly, and I’m speaking from experience.
As to why I thought that staying in Spain illegally was a good idea, well… I grew up in Arizona, where a third of the population was living in some form of “undocumented migrant” situation.
It didn’t seem exotic back then. It just seemed like a normal life plan.
Also, I had a healthy disrespect for government, and didn’t believe in letting bureaucracy telling me what to do. I overstayed my visa, and if the Spanish government wanted, they could deport me.
That’s the deal I signed up for, way back in the cold winter of 2004.
Later, after 7 years of illegality, and 13 more years renewing residence permits, I finally became Spanish at the end of 2025. So now, I’m not even an immigrant anymore. I’m a local. Just another Spaniard.
Spain’s Massive Regularization of Migrants
The current Spanish government – a coalition of socialists and others – has for the last several years been firmly in the camp of “there are absolutely no downsides to immigration”.
And this week, to show they mean it, they announced a mass regularization of undocumented migrants. (Again “regularization” is the word everyone’s using, these days. Previously we would have called this sort of thing an “amnesty”. But I digress.)
Anyway, this move could benefit about 500,000 people, out of the (approximately) 850,000 illegal immigrants assumed to be in Spain. Obviously, that number is a guess – it’s hard to count people who are trying to fly under the radar.
I’m just a blogger and podcaster – not a statistician or sociologist – but I’d guess the actual number of illegal immigrants in Spain is much higher than 850,000.
When I look around Barcelona, and other parts of Spain that I visit, there are lots of people, everywhere, who I can’t imagine being legal. Getting a work permit in Spain isn’t that easy. You can be highly qualified, or you can be hired for a job that’s on a list of “difficult-to-fill occupations” released quarterly by the government.
I don’t know a lot of people who have gotten legal in those ways. (Although my wife Morena arrived on a highly-qualified visa to do scientific research. So I guess I know one person.)
In reality, a lot of people come on student visas and work out a way to stay in Spain afterwards. (Young people move abroad, find love, get married, etc.) Or they just overstay a tourist visa like I did.
If you do that – which of course I don’t recommend – there’s a process called Arraigo Social which lets you legalize your situation after a couple of years.
I did arraigo, and it was a huge pain, but it got me on a “path to citizenship” for which I’m eternally grateful.
Details of the Regularization of Migrants
Usually, I try to avoid writing about laws that haven’t been passed yet. A lot could change by the time the whole thing is official. Also, the roll-out could be a massive failure.
What the government says they’re going to do isn’t always what ends up happening.
News reports say the amnesty could go into effect by April.
In any case, the new mass regularization is already having real-world effects. I guess we’ll see what the actual impact is with time.
Yesterday I read that hundreds of Pakistanis had descended on their consulate here in Barcelona, all trying to get the Character Certificate to prove that they don’t have a criminal record back in Pakistan. A clean criminal record is one of the things the government will be requiring before it starts handing out visas.
My wife Morena has a language (or two) in common with a lot of the Pakistanis here in Barcelona, and reports that “Do you have your papers?” is a common conversational topic.
Side note: If you’re from the US and you need an FBI background check (which you do for a lot of visa processes) the easiest thing is to talk with Continentalis.eu – they’ll take your fingerprints, and take care of the sworn translation and the Apostille of the Hague as well. Tell them Daniel from The Chorizo Chronicles sent you.
Arraigo Social and the Path to Citizenship
I’m not sure why they’re doing a mass regularization when Arraigo Social is available after two years, but that’s what the new law proposes.
It’ll give a one-year residence permit to anyone who can prove that they had been in Spain for five months or more leading up to December 31, 2025. People who filed an asylum application before that date can also apply.
Anyway, those whose applications are successful will get a work and residence permit which they can then renew according to Spanish law. That process is (as far as I know) the same thing I did back when I got legal.
With legal residency, and work contracts, of course they’ll also be paying taxes. Which I guess is part of the point. We need to fund that welfare state for the aging population.
My opinion as a former “undocumented migrant” in Spain
You may be wondering about my opinion on mass regularizations.
And it’s a bit complicated.
Generally, I believe that everyone has a moral obligation to be a useful member of society.
So if immigrants want to work hard, pay taxes, and improve their communities in whatever way they can, I’m fine with that. It’s what I did as an immigrant myself, and what I’m trying to do now, as a full Spanish citizen.
On the other hand, if people show up and become career criminals or otherwise drain our resources, we (the Spanish people) have a right to send them back to where they came from.
That’s the deal I signed up for when I became an undocumented migrant in this country. And eventually it put me on a path to citizenship that I earned through the sweat of my brow and the chalk dust on my hands… through many years of teaching English in Madrid.
In addition to all that, I believe that societies have some sort of obligation to facilitate people becoming more useful members of their communities. And that’s what laws like this “mass regularization” are trying to do.
So I’m okay with the whole thing. But that’s my opinion. You’re free to disagree.
Also, isn’t immigration great for the economy?
One of the big arguments in favor of mass immigration is that it’s good for the economy.
Spain has had a lot of immigration in recent years, and the economy is also better than in most other European countries. But still, it’s not that good.
We have 10% unemployment, salaries are often terrible, and many people are suffering from the effects of the housing crisis – a crisis which is at least partially caused by a combination of mass immigration and government regulations preventing new building.
And despite the high tax burden on anyone who’s remotely productive, the government is increasingly unable to maintain basic quality of services. The railway fiasco of the last couple of weeks is an illustration of that.
(Illegal migrants in Spain don’t have access to much of the welfare state, in case you’re wondering. But they do have a right to healthcare and to public education for their children. There are also certain “humanitarian aid” benefits for people who really need it, and programs for asylum seekers. Having experienced Spanish bureaucracy at various levels for 21+ years now, I’m guessing they’re not rolling out the red carpet for anyone.)
But even if we allow that immigration is good for the economy, we still have to do something to mitigate the downsides. And it’s not clear that the current government has the will to do so.
We need to talk about luxury beliefs
Refusing to see the downsides of mass immigration is a luxury belief.
It makes you look sophisticated. You obviously have a job where you don’t have to deal with low-wage foreign competition. Good for you. You’re so tolerant, and open-minded.
You also (I assume) don’t live in a low-income area, and aren’t being crushed by the housing crisis.
In fact, the negatives of immigration (which do exist) are borne by people much less classy than you… you’re fine.
That’s what makes it a luxury belief: upper-class people look good for repeating the slogan – “Diversity is our strength!” – and the people who actually live with the consequences don’t matter that much.
I often wonder if the folks who are the most vocal about immigration even come into close contact with immigrants in their own cities and neighborhoods.
Because if they did, they would certainly decide that there are many types of immigrant – many types of people with very different stories and motivations. And that you can’t generalize about such a massive and diverse group.
But like I said… nobody wants to have a civilized conversation about immigration.
Yours,
Daniel AKA Mr Chorizo.
P.S. I’ve often thought that being “anti-gentrification” is just a classier form of being anti-immigrant. “I’m only against middle-class migration, it’s a sophisticated philosophical position!” And I feel the same way about being “anti-expat”. There are people who would never say anything against immigrants, but they’re fine with complaining about expats. Meanwhile, it’s not really clear to me that there’s a difference between immigrants and expats. It’s just a vocabulary choice. Anyway, as usual, most Spanish people don’t hate expats or Americans, and aren’t obsessed with politics or the immigration issue. So don’t worry.
P.P.S. I’ve written extensively about my own immigrant story on here, for example: Twenty Years of Immigrant Life. These days, a lot of Americans are coming on non-lucrative visas and such, which is great if you can afford it. But it’s a completely different experience than the one I had, scraping by in some of the worst neighborhoods in Madrid.
P.P.P.S. This didn’t make it into the article, but the list of “difficult-to-fill occupations” for the first quarter of 2026 is 40 pages long and includes a surprising number of fishing and merchant marine jobs. If you lubricate boat engines for a living, for example, you can work almost anywhere. Other jobs are mostly manual: electrical installers, crane operators, etc. Maybe if you want to change careers you can get a work permit that way. Let me know how it goes.
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