Migrants rush to apply under Spain’s new mass legalization program

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MADRID (AP) — Migrants in Spain on Monday began applying in person to legalize their status after the Southern European nation launched an amnesty measure that could affect hundreds of thousands of foreigners living and working in the country without authorization.

The program was announced in January and finalized this month. It offers immigrants without legal status a one-year, renewable residence permit if they have spent five months living in the country and have a clean criminal record. They have until the end of June to apply.

There have been questions about the short window to process what Spain's government has said could include 500,000 migrants, and which Spanish think tank Funcas estimates is around 840,000 people.

Over 370 post offices opened their doors to applicants and the government has said they also can apply at 60 social security offices and a handful of migration offices. Online applications started last Thursday.

Applicants at post offices in the capital, Madrid, and Barcelona described a process without incident, though some criticized long wait times even with appointments.

“It's pretty simple since I made an appointment online and I was given one for this morning,” said Nubia Rivas, a 47-year-old Venezuelan migrant who filed her application at a post office in downtown Madrid. “The process here is a little slow, but it's fluid.”

Venezuelan migrant Johana Moreno showed up to a post office in central Madrid with her husband. She said she was an archivist in Venezuela but now works cleaning homes.

“It's what we want,” Moreno said about legalizing her status. “To be well, to work, to contribute, all those things. To pay our taxes. We know that we’ll have rights, but also we’ll have obligations.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, a progressive, has called the measure “an act of justice and a necessity,” arguing that those already living and working in Spain should “do so under equal conditions” and pay taxes.

With an aging population, the government says Spain needs more workers to maintain its growing economy and contribute to social security.

Spain’s position sharply differs from prevailing attitudes on immigration in Europe, where many governments have been trying to curb arrivals and step up deportations. The Spanish government has defended the legalization measure as an economic one that has the support of business owners and unions.

In recent years, Spain’s population has grown considerably to include around 10 million people who were born outside the country — or one in every five residents. Many are from Colombia, Venezuela and Morocco, having fled poverty, violence or political instability.

Key sectors of the Spanish economy, including agriculture, tourism and the service sector, depend on immigrants from Latin America and Africa.

It’s not the first time Spain has granted amnesty to immigrants living in the country without authorization. It did so six times before between 1986 and 2005, including under conservative governments.

On Thursday, 25-year-old Moroccan migrant Mourad El-Shaky described waiting in line outside Barcelona's City Hall for four hours to obtain the paperwork needed to apply.

El-Shaky said he came to Spain via Turkey, having journeyed all the way west by foot despite the short distance between Spain and Morocco. The legalization measure, he said, would “solve many things.”

“Without papers (work and residency permits), your hands are tied,” El-Shaky said. “You’re like a bird that can’t fly, with broken wings.”

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This story corrects a previous version that wrongly stated the day that Spain began accepting online applications for its migrant legalization program. It began last Thursday, not Friday.