An against-the-current regularization

Days after the European Parliament approved the Return Regulation to the cry of "send them back!" (send them back!), in Spain the deadline for submitting applications for the extraordinary regularization process ends with figures that will exceed one million people. Faced with irregular immigration, the European Union responds with deportations - which it dreams of as massive - and celebrates it with overflowing joy. Spain, on the other hand, is carrying out the largest extraordinary regularization in its history.Why? The regularization is the result of the mobilization of migrant communities that began in the midst of the pandemic and culminated in the largest Popular Legislative Initiative (it surpassed 700,000 signatures) ever presented to the Congress of Deputies. Years later, a last-minute pact between PSOE and Podemos unblocked it. But the regularization would also not be understood without taking into account much more structural factors that have remained unchanged since the beginning of the century.The first is the almost insatiable demand for new workers which is met by the arrival of immigrant people. The demand is structural, but in periods of economic growth like the current one, it grows exponentially. The second is that there are no regular entry routes for these workers: this is why most of them enter as tourists and stay for a few years working irregularly while waiting to regularize their status. The third is that the majority are Latin Americans, who are perceived as necessary and culturally close. Although they are not the only ones, they are the desired ones.