Defying the anti-immigrant trend in the U.S., Spain is reaping economic benefits by granting citizenship to tens of thousands of newly-arrived workers.
In this nation of 48 million with long colonial links to the New World, an influx of predominantly Latin American immigrants is helping fuel one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe. The Spanish economic transformation is unfolding as the center-left government of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez has streamlined immigration rules while offering legal status to roughly 700,000 irregular migrants since 2021.
Immigrants are filling labor gaps not only in Spain’s lower-wage tourism, construction and agricultural sectors, but also in the more highly skilled tech and medical sectors. In an office park on the edge of Valencia, companies such as Avantio, a digital services and software provider for the tourism industry, have leveraged Spain’s streamlined immigration rules to employ foreigners and grow business.
Company officials say they have turned to foreign labor for positions that otherwise might take up to a year to fill. Almost 73 percent of the company’s hires in 2024 were born outside Spain, mostly in Latin America.
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