Why has the Spanish state granted migrants more rights?

President of the Spanish state, Pedro Sánchez is no radical (Photo: WikipediaCommons)

There were scenes of celebration in the Spanish state this month when hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants were given more rights and stability.

A decree that allows migrants to apply for a legal residence permit was passed. This will give them the right to work.

In the Madrid neighbourhood of Lavapiés, Bangladeshi people held a street party in the main plaza this week. They celebrated the ruling with music, dancing and Bangladeshi food.

The actions of prime minister Pedro Sánchez, from the Labour-type PSOE, shows up the British Labour government’s crackdown on migrants.

David Karvala, from United Against Fascism and Racism in Catalonia, told Socialist Worker, “It’s good news. People are already starting to go through the procedures to get their papers.”

He explained that the decree was a result of a big mobilisation led by migrants that began in 2020. “It’s a thing that goes back to Covid-19,” he said. “Migrant activists in Catalonia started petitioning and got around 700,000 signatures.

“If you get more than 500,000 signatures, you can get a debate in parliament through something called the Popular Legislative Initiative. You had to be a Spanish citizen to sign it.

“But that was years ago, so it’s been stalled. It affects at least half a million people—all these people have been waiting for years.”

David outlined that the Spanish state wants to regularise migrants out of economic necessity. It has one of the world’s oldest populations, so relies on migrant labour.

The bosses understand that they benefit—as well as the migrants themselves—from giving more rights to people coming to the country.

David said, “The main employer organisations are all in favour. As we know, anti-migration laws are not there to stop migrants—they are there to stop them getting more rights.

“But the employers recognise that they need more people. In agriculture, they could employ some people off the books, but not in every industry. And they need them regularised so they pay income tax.”

Even the Conservative-type PP was previously in favour of regularising undocumented migrants.

But now it is strongly against it—so is the far right Vox party.

“It’s part of the rightwards shift of mainstream right wing parties”, David said. “Like the Conservative party in Britain, the PP has shifted rightwards.”

“In regional governments that they control or where they are in coalition with Vox, they are saying they will hand benefits to Spaniards first. Only after will migrants receive benefits, if there are any left over. This is not actually legal.”

And the PP’s politicians, like Madrid’s president Isabel Díaz Ayuso, are sounding more and more like Donald Trump.

David argued that Sánchez doesn’t always live up to his radical image.

“Obviously it’s good that the rhetoric is progressive, but the rhetoric doesn’t always match the reality”, said David.

Sánchez is a critic of Israel. Last week he urged the European Union (EU) to end its trade agreement with the terror state. But Spain was trading arms with Israel before October 2023.

Last year, Sánchez committed to spending 2 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) on defence. GDP is defined as the total value of goods produced and sold, investments made, government spending and exports minus imports.

It’s considered “radical”, but only in comparison to the 5 percent that the likes of Keir Starmer want to spend.

In 2022, Sánchez congratulated police for preventing migrants from entering the Spanish state from Morocco via Spain’s colonial enclave of Maliliyah. He called the attempted crossing a “violent assault on Spanish soil”.

Police murdered at least 37 migrants. Sánchez later claimed that he wasn’t aware of the massacre. But he supports the EU border regime that leads to these deaths on Europe’s borders.

The real story isn’t that social democracy is radical. It is that the state can be pushed by pressure from below, including from migrants themselves, into offering them more rights.