Madrid’s Reina Sofía Museum turned into a think-tank on 4 November as the European Migration Network (EMN) — the EU platform that links migration authorities and researchers — held its annual conference under the banner “40 Years of Spain in the EU: Impact on Migration Policy.” Opening the forum, Secretary of State for Migration Pilar Cancela recalled that when Spain joined the bloc in 1986 it was still a country of emigrants; four decades later it has the EU’s second-highest share of foreign residents and issues more than half a million first-time residence permits every year.
Panel discussions traced the legislative milestones that have shaped Spain’s mobility landscape, from the first Aliens Act of 1985 to the 2025 overhaul of the Immigration Regulation (Royal Decree 1155/2024). Officials from the Interior and Inclusion ministries stressed how new “second-chance” arraigo permits and the fast-track Digital Nomad visa are designed to match labour-market gaps while reducing irregular employment. Eurostat experts presented data showing Spain’s labour-mobility dependency rate has risen to 12.4 %, surpassing Germany for the first time.
![European Migration Network marks Spain’s 40 years in the EU with policy-mobility summit in Madrid]()
A dedicated business-mobility session drew corporate mobility managers from Iberdrola, Santander and Telefónica, who warned that processing times for EU Blue Cards still average 45 days despite the creation of one-stop offices. Several multinationals urged the government to digitalise the entire permit workflow before the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) becomes fully mandatory in April 2026.
Civil-society organisations used the stage to highlight integration challenges: 35 % of non-EU workers are on temporary contracts and housing costs in Madrid and Barcelona are “eroding the competitiveness of relocation packages.” The conference closed with a call for a national strategy to align immigration, housing and training policies so that Spain can “remain attractive to talent while staying socially cohesive.”
Panel discussions traced the legislative milestones that have shaped Spain’s mobility landscape, from the first Aliens Act of 1985 to the 2025 overhaul of the Immigration Regulation (Royal Decree 1155/2024). Officials from the Interior and Inclusion ministries stressed how new “second-chance” arraigo permits and the fast-track Digital Nomad visa are designed to match labour-market gaps while reducing irregular employment. Eurostat experts presented data showing Spain’s labour-mobility dependency rate has risen to 12.4 %, surpassing Germany for the first time.
A dedicated business-mobility session drew corporate mobility managers from Iberdrola, Santander and Telefónica, who warned that processing times for EU Blue Cards still average 45 days despite the creation of one-stop offices. Several multinationals urged the government to digitalise the entire permit workflow before the EU Entry/Exit System (EES) becomes fully mandatory in April 2026.
Civil-society organisations used the stage to highlight integration challenges: 35 % of non-EU workers are on temporary contracts and housing costs in Madrid and Barcelona are “eroding the competitiveness of relocation packages.” The conference closed with a call for a national strategy to align immigration, housing and training policies so that Spain can “remain attractive to talent while staying socially cohesive.”
