Loosening immigration policies to attract skilled Latin American labour

Spain’s labour shortage is worsening with each passing day and the government has been forced into action to ease the crisis.

The country is loosening its immigration policies to attract skilled workers from Latin America and plans to roll out the red carpet to woo them into the country. With nearly a quarter of its population aged above 65 years, the labour shortage is worsening with the added pressure on its social welfare system, which is buckling under the growing rate of pensioners.

As means of attracting skilled labour into the country, the Spanish government recently passed a legislative bill, easing the task for thousands of domestic firms to fill vacancies. It is being reported that there are more than a million job positions lying vacant in various economic sectors, including transport, construction and agriculture.

Loosening immigration laws

Under the amended immigration law, Spanish firms can offer a four-year work permit to temporary workers from foreign countries. Workers who return to their home country after four years can renew their visa to work in Spain for two more years.

Most Spanish businesses and corporations prefer hiring people from Latin American countries who, for the most part, share language, religion and other key cultural identifiers with Spain. For the past decade, hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants from the Middle East and Africa have risked their lives to sneak into Europe.

More than 50,000 undocumented immigrants have arrived in Spain since January 2021 alone, according to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR. However, anecdotal evidence shows that most Spaniards don’t want to hire them, preferring people from Latin American countries, who for the most part share language, religion and other key cultural identifiers with Spain.

Today, Latin Americans account for two per cent of Spain’s population. Most of them are from Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela.