Integration over exclusion: Spain’s mass regularisation of 500,000 undocumented migrants

By Asbel Bohigues

As governments around the world tighten migration controls, Spain has taken a strikingly different path. In January 2026, the Spanish cabinet approved a decree opening a pathway to legal residency for hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants who already live in the country. At a time when deportations, detentions and exclusion dominate migration debates elsewhere, Spain has chosen regularisation.

The measure allows migrants without legal status to apply for temporary residence permits...