Call for air. These three words are running through the heads of the people of Spain who lean to the right. Since the coming to power of the socialist Pedro Sanchez, the immigration figures have been dizzying. The 500,000 regularizations of illegal immigrants, announced by the government at the start of the year, have barely been digested by part of the country before they have to accept a new disproportionate figure. More than 1,000%: this is the increase in family reunification authorizations validated by the administration since 2018 and the start of the socialist and far-left coalition. As a reminder, these are residence permits that can be obtained by children or grandchildren of foreign nationals who have already obtained legal residence.
The Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration has published the annual evolution of the number of authorizations granted to foreigners over the last decade. In 2017, 6,700 family reunification authorizations were granted. In 2024, the latest year available, the socialist government issued 93,076 permits of this type. And seven years later, the figure has increased thirteenfold, an exact increase of 1,289%. By adding up all the authorizations granted for different types of visas (family, study, work and social), the total is even more dizzying. While in 2017, 30,533 authorizations were issued, they increased to 223,396 in 2024. And these figures could increase further when the government has completed the massive regularization of half a million illegal foreigners. A simplified procedure has also been put in place by the Spanish administration to speed up the process.
Once their administrative situation has been regularized, the beneficiary immigrants could in turn resort to family reunification so that their children or grandchildren can also be regularized. All the applicant will need to do is prove their relationship and that they have no criminal record in their country of origin.
Pedro Sanchez is accused of accumulating provocations
The right estimates that the 500,000 new regularizations should lead to 300,000 requests for family reunification. The leader of the Popular Party (PP) and leader of the opposition Alberto Nuñez Feijoo alerted Brussels to the effects of this massive regularization desired by Pedro Sanchez: “Europe must say who is entering and under what conditions, especially since the outbreak of war in Iran. »
The European Commissioner for Home Affairs and Migration, Magnus Brunner, has already indicated that a residence permit granted by Spain does not automatically allow one to settle in other countries of the European Union. And in the event that a regularized person is detected in an irregular situation in another Member State, they must be “returned to Spanish territory”he added.
The right of the PP accuses Pedro Sanchez of accumulating provocations to bring out the patriots of Vox and thus weaken the traditional conservative parties. The famous draft could turn into a political typhoon.
