Spanish employers call for fewer barriers to hiring migrants

63% of employers demand less red tape to hire migrants

Immigration in Spain has reached record figures: 2.5 million arrivals in less than four years. Yet labour market integration is not keeping pace. 63% of employers are calling for bureaucratic obstacles to hiring more foreign workers to be removed, according to a survey that captures the growing disconnect between the migratory reality and the administrative maze.

The labour market data are damning. The unemployment rate among foreigners stands at 18.2%, far above the 11.6% for natives. That gap represents an estimated loss of 5.1 billion euros in potential wages. Even more striking: since 2023, the activity rate of Spaniards (80.2%) has for the first time surpassed that of foreigners, which has fallen to 79%, its lowest level in twenty years. Two thirds of migrants face barriers to working, and three in four companies believe the law makes hiring difficult.

Meanwhile, immigration has become one of Spaniards' main concerns. According to the CIS (Spain's official polling institute) for November 2024, almost 19% cite it as the country's biggest problem, behind only housing (40%) and level with political conflicts (19.2%).

But not everyone sees the solution in deregulation. It is argued that employers are looking for cheap labour and that cutting red tape would only facilitate labour dumping, with wages from poor countries and soaring rents. The paradox reaches its climax when you observe that parties such as Podemos or Sumar, nominally pro-worker, agree with the employers' association on the need for more immigration.

The debate remains open: while some see a bureaucratic obstacle dragging down the economy, others denounce a strategy to cut costs. The only certainty is that the mismatch between arrivals and labour market integration keeps growing.