PP seeks to close path to legal residency for migrants
Incoming government will make it harder for those who arrived in Spain illegally
Undocumented migrants who have been in Spain for two or three years may no longer obtain residency through length of residence and showing a new job contract, the incoming Popular Party (PP) government has said. The possibility will remain open "in very exceptional cases, to be established together with regional and local authorities," said Rafael Hernando, PP spokesman for immigration. "Length-of-residence legalization has encouraged illegal immigration and it should only exist as an exceptional system."
At present, after being in Spain illegally for three years, a migrant may get papers if they can show they have been employed for at least a year; another way is to be here illegally for two years and prove one year of previous work.
In 2006, 7,427 people obtained residency through this method; by 2009 the figure had risen to 82,300. Because of the crisis, last year the number fell to 65,676. "We cannot be legalizing 70,000 people through this system when there are no jobs," Hernando argued.