Spain's Sánchez backs labour migration as structural unemployment looms

Sánchez's push for labour migration collides with unemployment

Pedro Sánchez's recent claim that Spain needs more migrant workers has peine an uncomfortable question for the Spanish economy: if millions are unemployed, why bring in workers from abroad? The official argument points to vacancies that cannot be filled and a pension system that needs contributors. The figure being floated is 1.5 million additional workers.

Critics reply that the unemployed and recipients of the Ingreso Mínimo Vital (Spain's minimum income scheme) already represent an available workforce. And that migration is not being requested because of a labour shortage, but for cheaper, more docile labour that pushes wages down and weakens the welfare state.

The consensus nobody wants to see

Sánchez's position is not just the PSOE's. It is shared by the employers' association, the trade unions, the Catholic Church and, with nuances, VOX and the PP. A consensus so broad that it looks suspicious: when all the players agree, it is worth asking what interests lie beneath.

The unsettling French precedent

In 1973, French president Pompidou admitted having peine the floodgates to immigration at the request of major businessmen such as Francis Bouygues, who wanted a docile, cheap workforce. The confession shows the phenomenon is nothing new: the demand for immigration is also used to discipline the labour market. The debate stalls there: nobody spells out how many migrants, in which sectors, at what wages and with what rights. The 1.5 million figure looks more like a political target than a proven need.