In Spain, the process of obtaining residency and work permits is so cumbersome and complicated that carrying out extraordinary regularization processes has already become a custom. The goal is to end administrative bottlenecks and pockets of irregular immigration that, in turn, fuel the black economy and the perpetuation of situations of social vulnerability. These regularizations have been carried out by socialist and popular governments. There were them in 1986, 1991, and 1996 under Felipe González, in 2000 and 2001 under José María Aznar, and in 2005 and 2006 under José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero. The last one, therefore, was twenty years ago, before the migratory boom after the global recession of 2008-2012.

Josep Sala i Cullell is a geography teacher at a high school in Norway. His first essay, Plug generation, It sparked some controversy when addressing generational power struggles. Now it returns with We are not 6 million (Portico), A book in which he calls for open discussion about immigration and criticizes the fact that we have been sold, as inevitable, a model designed to favor employers and harm workers.

Having self-love in times of hate is the answer and the path. The Super Bowl performance presented love as a trench, a word, and a form of resistance against the alarming election results. At the world's biggest concert, with 135 million viewers, reading "only love is more powerful than hate" became a balm for the pain of seeing dehumanizing policies gain votes.

The Spanish government's decision to undertake a new mass regularization process for undocumented immigrants is a necessary measure, but it also demonstrates that the immigration system is failing. Currently, obtaining a work permit in Spain is a bureaucratic odyssey, a labyrinth where workers and companies become trapped, ultimately leading to the formation of unmanageable pockets of people living among us but in a legal limbo that prevents them from accessing legal employment or decent housing, and forces them to constantly worry about legal status. By cutting off all avenues for social integration, the only result is the creation of pockets of poverty and marginalization that fuel an underground economy, ultimately hindering the country's development.

It's not uncommon these days to see dystopian films and series depicting the United States in the throes of civil war or where chaos reigns and the law of the strongest prevails. Unfortunately, the raids by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Border Patrol (CBP) to indiscriminately capture immigrants are bringing these apocalyptic scenarios, where police violence is the norm, ever closer. The cold-blooded murder of Alex Pretti, a nurse protesting the raids in Minneapolis, has sparked a wave of outrage across the country. This incident follows the shooting death of Renee Nicole Good while she was arguing with an officer without leaving her vehicle. It also comes on the heels of the scandal surrounding the arrest of five-year-old Liam Ramos, who was taken home from school and used as bait to lure his father home.

Which We are living these days in Badalona.It is a reflection and consequence of the xenophobic rhetoric of the far right, which, in order to respond to people's discontent, seeks easy scapegoats in the weakest link of society: the most recent arrivals. The city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, of the PP, He has behaved like an ultra-conservative, incendiary leader, blatantly linking immigration with insecurity and promoting and turning into a propaganda spectacle the eviction of a former educational institute occupied by people with nowhere to sleep.

During this year of 2025, which is about to end, few images in Catalonia have been more shocking than those seen Sunday night in Badalona, ​​when a small group of residents forcibly prevented fifteen immigrants from the group evicted from the B9 high school from being rehoused in the parish of Our Lady of Montserrat. This is the extent of hatred and inhumanity displayed by some residents who have embraced the rhetoric fueled by the city's mayor, Xavier García Albiol, against a group of 200 people who now have to seek shelter under a bridge in freezing temperatures.

Under the C-31 bridge, between Badalona and Sant Adrià de Besòs, all the realities of the world have converged, along with some of the miseries of this country. We find great universal classics: the second-to-last to arrive against the last, that is, the poor against the very poor, workers with precarious economies against those who aspire to one day have precarious jobs with papers, in a situation that amounts to an unexpected (and bitter) twist on what was once called class struggle. All of this is fueled by the deliberate conflation of poverty and crime, and the gospel of hate according to TikTok, disguised as concern for security.

Tourism phobia? To the expats? To immigrants? There are polite and respectful tourists (you do your own sightseeing, right?), expats with a desire to integrate (surely they have a relative living abroad) and immigrants without whom we wouldn't leave (who cares for dependent relatives?). Fear and/or phobia abroad, in general, is a dead end. It harbors hatred of difference. Structural problems—housing, insecurity, poverty, strain on social services, etc.—are one thing, and people are quite another. If instead of looking at collectives, we focus on specific individuals—neighbors, friends, coworkers, shopkeepers, acquaintances, or those we greet—our perception becomes humanized. The other person becomes a familiar face.

1. Portraits. The immigrant hunt organized by the far right in Torre Pacheco is yet another warning of the threats to democracy. And it's no small feat. The targeting—elevated to persecution—of people who come from abroad to survive, to find work unavailable in their places of origin, has become an alibi upon which the far right builds and attempts to legitimize its xenophobic discourse and aims: Spanishness as a self-evident characteristic of people, as a condition for recognition of people, a mechanism for patriotic unification. As always, using the weakest as scapegoats—and using lies as an argument for legitimization. This case, like so many others, stems from one fake: from the image of the attack by some young ultras, those who are now outraged, on an elderly person from Alicante. The narrative is in reverse, with an obsession with constructing a portrait of the enemies and turning the fight against them—filled with hatred, but also expressive of one's own weakness—into a political priority.

The Vox spokesperson for the flourishing demographic emergency and social policies portfolio, Rocío de Meer, has said that seven or eight million immigrants and their children living in Spain should be deported. Seven or eight, which doesn't come from a palm or a million of the millions. You pay 100 euros for a ticket (cabin luggage, that is), cheap talk, you're spending 800,000,000 euros. She's considering the idea of deporting them by train, Third Reich-style. Even in this case, I'd say the situation is complicated.

France wants to ban marriages between French people and foreigners in an irregular situation, even if they are not marriages of convenience. The Senate – dominated by the right – approved on Thursday a bill to prevent any foreigner who does not have a residence permit from marrying a person of French nationality. With the exception of the left, parties from all over the parliamentary spectrum, including those in government, voted in favour.

France wants to ban marriages between French people and foreigners in an irregular situation, even if they are not marriages of convenience. The Senate - dominated by the right - approved a bill on Thursday to prevent any foreigner who does not have a residence permit from marrying a person of French nationality. With the exception of the left, parties across the parliamentary spectrum, including those in government, voted in favour.

The Catalan population born abroad has surpassed the two million mark for the first time. Specifically, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics (INE) published in the latest Continuous Population Survey dated January 1, the number of inhabitants of Catalonia who were born outside the State stands at 2,028,315. The figure represents 24.98% of the total population and represents an increase of almost 30,000 people in the last quarter of 2024. In total, last year the number of Catalans born abroad increased by 121,633 people.

The Council of Ministers will approve this Tuesday the exceptional and temporary regularization of thousands of immigrants affected by the DANA in the Valencian Community on October 29, as has been announced The Country and has confirmed the ARA. According to sources from the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, some 26,000 migrants will be able to benefit from an "exceptional" residence permit. The figure would grow to 98,000 beneficiaries if other changes in immigration matters are taken into account, which will also be approved tomorrow Tuesday.