When some 150,000 people aspire to have papers in Catalonia

If we talk about contradictions, many people who complain that immigrants come are the same ones who give them black market jobs. And many people who from the left talk about the humanitarian need to regularize them do not always find an answer to the real and psychological impact that the radical transformation that many of our neighborhoods have experienced means

15/04/2026
2 min

It has been in force since this morning a measure that affects us closely: the extraordinary regularization of immigrants that the Spanish Council of Ministers approved yesterday.Although the Spanish government has not provided figures by region, the calculations made coincide in stating that Catalonia will be the autonomous community where the most will be regularized, between 135,000 and 150,000 people. 90,000 will do so in the Valencian Community, 60,000 in Madrid and Andalusia, and 18,000 in the Balearic Islands, approximately. In total, in Spain, half a million people who already live here may end up having papers.The Spanish government has tightened the conditions for regularization, as proposed by Junts and the PP, so it will be necessary to present a certificate proving that the applicant has not had a criminal record in the five years prior to the application. The terms of the debate are known.If we talk about politics, with this measure Sánchez acts as an anti-Trump and his police go around hunting and capturing undocumented immigrants. It is Sánchez's way of always playing on the offensive and putting himself at the forefront of global progressivism. For his part, Feijóo moves within predictable terms and says that this regularization is “inhuman, unjust, and insecure”, and finishes by saying “anyone can enter here”. The reality is that both the PP and the PSOE (Aznar, González, Zapatero) approved regularizations.If we speak in humanitarian terms, all entities working with immigrants find it fair, if we don't want thousands of people living among us to live in poverty without any rights. The bishops have also been of the same opinion.If we speak in economic terms, the native population is aging rapidly, birth rates are very low, and immigration is the necessary workforce for a service business model, which is why Spain is growing, with low wages in the tourism and care sectors. In this regard, there is the paradox that employers, the Spanish left-wing government, and bishops are in favor of regularization. Another matter is the debate among economists about whether these new full-fledged citizens are asking for more services than they pay for. Miquel Puig has written about this in ARA. It's the

Because, since we are talking about the economy, are public healthcare and education prepared for the regularization of 150,000 more people? The answer is no. And we don't even need to talk about housing. And we are also far below what we need in terms of resources for learning Catalan.If we talk about contradictions, many people who complain about immigrants coming are the same ones who give them undeclared jobs. And many people who, from the left, talk about the humanitarian need to regularize them do not always find an answer to the real and psychological impact that the radical transformation experienced by many of our neighborhoods means. Good morning.

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