![\"Elma](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1-\u00a9Carlos-Chavarria_Monocle_Elma_Saiz_Hi_Res_09_CROP.jpg\")
Elma Saiz outside the migration ministry in Madrid<\/p>\nOn a winter weekday in Madrid, Spain\u2019s minister for inclusion, social security and migration is pushing back against clich\u00e9s about her country. \u201cIt isn\u2019t just sun and beaches,\u201d says Elma Saiz at the ministry\u2019s headquarters in the north of the capital. Above her head hangs a large photo of a cat; on another wall, near the requisite ministerial flags, is a painting of a man asleep on a park bench. While the setting might be unremarkable, Spain\u2019s recent economic performance has been anything but.<\/p>\n
Many Eurozone countries have limped into the new year with sluggish growth. Spain, however, has cemented its position as one of the continent\u2019s fastest-growing economies, with GDP rising by 2.9 per cent in 2025. The figure is expected to remain above 2 per cent for the next few years \u2013 numbers that the likes of the UK, France and Germany can only dream of. The reasons for the upswing are many and varied, and include thriving sectors such as services and tourism. Much of it, however, is down to internal demand generated by a strengthening jobs market and a decision by the government to make it easier for foreigners to settle in the country. \u201cOne of the important influencing factors in this growth is our migration policies,\u201d says Saiz.<\/p>\n
Elma Saiz outside the migration ministry in Madrid<\/p>\n
A reform of the nation\u2019s reglamento de extranjer\u00eda (foreigner law) that came into force last May could benefit as many as 900,000 new residents over three years, through an expanded visa system and a mechanism called the arraigo, which allows people to apply for residency through three routes: \u201cfamily, employment and training\u201d, according to the minister. Saiz \u2013 a member of the leftist Spanish Socialist Workers\u2019 Party (PSOE), which governs in a minority coalition with the left-wing Sumar party \u2013 talks about migration as \u201ca right\u201d and \u201ca question of values, human rights and ethical responsibility\u201d. But there\u2019s also a cannier element of realpolitik at play.<\/p>\n
Like other southern European nations such as Italy and Greece, Spain has a rapidly ageing population and needs new workers to prop up the pensions system through socialsecurity contributions. Saiz, who has been in her role since late 2023, speaks of a \u201cdemographic winter\u201d and says that the country needs 250,000 new workers a year from now until 2050 to maintain the welfare state. The government is working hard to attract them. In 2024, Spain admitted 368,000 new permanent migrants (including many from Latin America, who make up two-thirds of new legal residents via the arraigo), putting it in the top five of oecd countries in terms of numbers (the US tops the list). \u201cSpain took a decision to be an open and prosperous country, not a closed and poor one,\u201d says Saiz.<\/p>\n
In 2025 the number of foreigners in the country\u2019s workforce reached a historic high of more than three million \u2013 about 14 per cent of the in-work population \u2013 but, of course, not all entrants to the labour market are from overseas. Saiz is keen to talk about the government\u2019s other achievements, such as helping more women into work, as well as increasing participation among under-thirties and over-fifties. And yet, though the economy is doing well, many Spaniards, like their European counterparts, believe that their leaders are out of step with the people on the subject. According to Spanish research institute, Centro de Investigaciones Sociol\u00f3gicas, immigration is Spain\u2019s principal concern. It\u2019s set to be a key issue in the next general election, which is scheduled for 2027.<\/p>\n
Saiz says that these sentiments are generated by \u201cdisinformation and hoaxes\u201d rather than analysis of the facts. \u201cIt\u2019s curious that when you ask about people\u2019s worries about migration, you\u2019ll find that levels are at their highest \u2013 but when you ask whether they\u2019re affected directly, that concern collapses,\u201d she says. Yet there have been integration issues as Spain has become more diverse. Last summer, a mob took to the streets of Torre-Pacheco in Murcia in search of people of North African origin, after a pensioner was attacked in the town. It had been whipped up in part by a video on social media falsely attributed to the assault. One of the ministry\u2019s jobs is to monitor online hate through a racism and xenophobia observatory known by the acronym Oberaxe.<\/p>\n
Talk of disinformation allows Saiz to pivot to a subject that she clearly feels more comfortable discussing: what she refers to as the \u201cforced narratives\u201d generated by the two main opposition parties, the right-wing People\u2019s Party (PP) and far-right Vox, which is led by firebrand Santiago Abascal. \u201cWhat\u2019s damaging is having a political opposition that doesn\u2019t have a project for the country,\u201d she says. Saiz cites the parliamentary right\u2019s votes against labour-market reform, increasing the minimum wage and raising pensions \u2013 what she says amounts to \u201canti-politics\u201d. She is equally scornful of the PP\u2019s decision to oppose a bill \u2013 introduced to parliament after receiving more than 600,000 signatures from the public \u2013 that aimed to grant large-scale legalisation to immigrants living in Spain who fall outside the arraigo parameters. Due to such opposition, the bill, which had the support of the Catholic Church, has fizzled out in parliament.<\/p>\n
Still, a progressive government thwarted by a right wing bent on what Saiz calls \u201celectoral calculations\u201d is only a partial picture. Beyond the country\u2019s rosy image and macroeconomic figures, significant structural challenges remain, meaning that jobs are being created but not for everyone. Despite record numbers of people in the formal economy \u2013 and very few empty positions, among the lowest in Europe \u2013 the situation for young people in the country remains precarious. One in four Spanish youths under the age of 25 is unemployed, considerably more than the EU average. Saiz rebuts this point by citing the significant progress that has been made in the past few years \u2013 as recently as 2015, youth unemployment stood at 49 per cent. There have also been improvements in everything from school dropout rates to scholarships.<\/p>\n
She wants to make another thing very clear. \u201cSomeone from overseas doesn\u2019t come and take a job from a Spanish national \u2013 nor do they take a house or public healthcare.\u201d So do migrants work different jobs to the Spanish youth who find it hard to find an income? Instead, she would rather focus on education gains and the fact that young people today \u201care much better prepared than they were a few years ago\u201d.<\/p>\n
Despite Spain standing out as a progressive country with a government that is attempting to implement a pro-migration agenda, there remains a danger of selfinflicted damage. Its prime minister, Pedro S\u00e1nchez, might be heading his third government and have survived impropriety investigations into his wife and brother, but the PSOE has recently been engulfed in a double-headed scandal that has led some to question whether he can see out his full term. A corruption case over kickbacks has implicated the country\u2019s former transport minister Jos\u00e9 Luis \u00c1balos and the PSOE\u2019s now ex-secretary Santos Cerd\u00e1n in what\u2019s known as the Caso Koldo.<\/p>\n
\u201cLet whoever needs to pay, pay,\u201d says Saiz, who would sooner cite the ongoing Montoro corruption case involving the PP\u2019s former finance minister, as well as a scandal in 2018 that led to the same party\u2019s former treasurer Luis B\u00e1rcenas receiving a 33-year prison sentence for fraud and money laundering.<\/p>\n
But there is a fresher problem facing the psoe: a series of sexual harassment allegations made against party members in several Spanish regions. \u201cIt disgusts me to hear what we have learnt,\u201d says Saiz, when pressed. \u201cNo woman, wherever she is, should have to live through situations like these.\u201d<\/p>\n
As for the possibility of early elections, the minister will hear nothing of the sort, responding with that deft political trick of answering a slightly different question to the one being asked. \u201cWe have a lot to do and, in Spain, terms of office last for four years,\u201d she says. And then she is on her feet, bidding farewell with a kiss on each cheek, off to her next meeting.<\/p>\n
Migration and jobs in Spain<\/strong><\/p>\n 352,089<\/strong> 225,428<\/strong> 4.2 million<\/strong> 370,346<\/strong> 3.1 million<\/strong> 506,451<\/strong> 57 per cent<\/strong> 54.8 per cent<\/strong>
Number of people who have residency in Spain through the arraigo system<\/p>\n
Arraigo residents from Latin America<\/p>\n
People born in Latin America living in Spain. Colombia makes up the biggest number (857,000)<\/p>\n
Moroccans in the Spanish workforce<\/p>\n
Foreigners in the country\u2019s workforce, 14 per cent of the total number<\/p>\n
New jobs created in 2025<\/p>\n
The percentage of overall employment created in the third quarter of 2025 filled by foreigners<\/p>\n
Increase of employed foreigners since 2019, compared to 10.1 per cent for Spanish-born workers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On a winter weekday in Madrid, Spain\u2019s minister for inclusion, social security and migration is pushing back against…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":727601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5312],"tags":[2000,299,6657,104],"class_list":{"0":"post-727600","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-spain","8":"tag-eu","9":"tag-europe","10":"tag-migration","11":"tag-spain"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115976011967458598","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=727600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/727600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/727601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=727600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=727600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=727600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}