Spain Looks To Legalise Foreign Workers In Labour Reform
Spain News
Published: 06 June 2022 17:44 CET
Spain plans to relax its work permit rules to help address labour shortages in industries such as construction, agriculture, technology and tourism.
The government’s purpose is to grant more temporary visas for those sectors that need workers, sectors that have been hit hard by the pandemic and now threaten the economic recovery. Spain’s economy shrunk by 11% in 2020 due to the pandemic, the hardest-hit country in the eurozone.
The minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Jose Luis Escriva said “We are evaluating different aspects of the migration law and where there is room to improve it...it is not agile enough to respond to the bottlenecks in Spain’s labour market.”
The government's objective is to allow roughly 50,000 non-EU students to work alongside their studies. It will also make it easier for those who can prove a previous connection to Spain through residence, family or at least two years of work, even if informal, to gain a work permit.
At present the draft of the decree has three main facets, allowing foreign students to take up work, allowing Spanish companies to hire from abroad and creating a framework through which irregular immigrants in Spain can receive work permits. This is of course still subject to change, depending on the input from the ministries.
Although there are no exact figures, organisations that work with migrants estimate that approximately 500,000 foreigners currently live in Spain in an irregular situation.
The draft of the reforms also categorises the most desperate job vacancies, them being delivery drivers, software developers, sales representatives and telemarketers.
The Spanish tourism sector is bouncing back but businesses are grappling to employ staff who are willing to clean hotel rooms and wait tables in restaurants, a problem that is being felt right across Europe. The government's fears are that the lack of staff in the areas will hinder Spain's capacity to realise projects that are funded by the European Union.
The proposed reform of the Immigration Law would be a landmark move for Spain and would, in all probability, make life easier for countless irregular immigrants, however, the move is primarily an economic one.
Sources
https://www.traveldailymedia.com/spain-to-grant-more-work-visas-to-combat-labour-shortages/
https://murciatoday.com/spain_plans_radical_employment_reform_to_legalise_foreign_workers_1784590-a.html
