Speaking at the Pozuelo de Alarcón Reception and Assistance Centre on 17 December—the eve of International Migrants Day—Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration Elma Saiz delivered a data-driven defence of Spain’s open labour-migration stance. Foreign workers, she noted, now account for 12 % of contributors to the social-security system and have filled 65 % of the net new jobs created in 2025, offsetting a shrinking native-born workforce.
Saiz linked the positive fiscal contribution of migrants to Spain’s demographic challenges: fertility remains at 1.3 children per woman and one in three Spaniards will be over 65 by 2035. “Without foreign talent we cannot sustain pensions, healthcare or long-term growth,” she told an audience of corporate HR directors and NGO practitioners.
![Spain’s Social Security Minister hails migrant workers as solution to the ‘demographic winter’]()
The minister highlighted recent regulatory tweaks that matter to global-mobility teams: job-seeker visas now last 12 months instead of three; international students can work 30 h per week; and new ‘arraigo formativo’ pathways allow undocumented residents to regularise status through vocational training contracts. A pilot skills-matching portal, to be launched with the Basque employment agency in February 2026, will let Spanish firms pre-hire workers still abroad.
Employers present—including Inditex and Siemens Gamesa—asked for faster digital processing of NIE numbers. Saiz promised that Spain’s long-delayed single online immigration window will enter beta testing “before summer 2026.” Multinationals planning 2026 transfers should therefore budget extra lead-time until the system stabilises.
Saiz linked the positive fiscal contribution of migrants to Spain’s demographic challenges: fertility remains at 1.3 children per woman and one in three Spaniards will be over 65 by 2035. “Without foreign talent we cannot sustain pensions, healthcare or long-term growth,” she told an audience of corporate HR directors and NGO practitioners.
The minister highlighted recent regulatory tweaks that matter to global-mobility teams: job-seeker visas now last 12 months instead of three; international students can work 30 h per week; and new ‘arraigo formativo’ pathways allow undocumented residents to regularise status through vocational training contracts. A pilot skills-matching portal, to be launched with the Basque employment agency in February 2026, will let Spanish firms pre-hire workers still abroad.
Employers present—including Inditex and Siemens Gamesa—asked for faster digital processing of NIE numbers. Saiz promised that Spain’s long-delayed single online immigration window will enter beta testing “before summer 2026.” Multinationals planning 2026 transfers should therefore budget extra lead-time until the system stabilises.
Source: Europa Press
