The crisis in Ceuta has to do with the regularization of migrants?
The Spanish government's process ended on June 30 and affected people who were in Spain before 2026
MadridThe entry of thousands of migrants into Ceuta in the last few hours, which has already left at least 19 dead, has led the right and far-right to target the Spanish government's extraordinary regularization process for migrants. "The images coming from Ceuta show that granting Spanish, and therefore European, citizenship to more than 500,000 irregular immigrants is a wrong decision that encourages human trafficking," reacted Italian Vice President and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Antonio Tajani, quickly to the crisis. A narrative to which the PP, Vox, and even the White House have joined. The Spanish government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been quick to censor it. "It has nothing to do [...] unlike what is falsely being said from some instance," Foreign Ministry sources stated this Thursday night.
From the outset, it should be taken into account that the people who have entered Ceuta and Melilla are not affected by the regularization process. The extraordinary measure by the Spanish government ended on June 30 with 1,174,978 applications submitted. Since then, no one can apply anymore. Beyond its completion, it is a process full of strict and defined requirements, starting with the accreditation of residence in Spanish territory before January 1, 2026. But also the fact of having been in Spain for five consecutive months before that date.
After what happened in Ceuta, PP and Vox have stated that this process had generated a so-called "pull effect," an idea they already championed when the measure was launched. "No one can be surprised that thousands of people want to enter a country that regularizes a million irregular immigrants overnight," said the Secretary General of the PP, Miguel Tellado.
In this regard, however, it should be taken into account that once the application is submitted, regularization is not automatic. First, the applications must be admitted for processing, and the Spanish government has three months to respond favorably or not. A month ago (the last day of the process), more than half of the applications had been admitted for processing. For now, rejected applications have not been made public. Once the application is accepted, beneficiaries will have a temporary authorization for one year to live and work in Spain. But then they must demonstrate requirements again to be able to renew it.
What has happened on other occasions?
But beyond the fact that the number of applications in authorized regularizations cannot be translated, this is not the first time Spain has carried out a process of this kind. Taking into account what the government of Pedro Sánchez has approved, the State has carried out six extraordinary regularization processes for migrants since the 1980s, two of which were under the government of José María Aznar (PP). And in parallel, it has launched other avenues to regularize the entry of migrants.
The last time a similar mechanism was carried out was in 2005 with the government of José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero (PSOE). Residence and temporary work permits were authorized for 576,000 people. "The improvements related to the right to work in the formal economy that the new regulation entailed, for workers in an irregular situation, did not translate into a pull effect of immigrant workers attracted by the new situation [...] nor into a significant increase in the arrival of immigrants," concludes a report from the Social Observatory of the "la Caixa" Foundation from 2021 in collaboration with Pompeu Fabra University.
Throughout this time, different experts have already indicated that this process "did not cause" this effect. In fact, as the authors of the study point out, the process also had a positive impact on the economy: "Each regularized person contributed between 4,000 and 5,000 euros annually in salary taxes alone," it is indicated. Joan Monrás, professor of Economics and one of the authors of the study, stated that "the 2005 regularization had a clearly positive effect." Government sources insist, however, that "it is impossible" to link the current crisis in Ceuta with the regularization process.
