The reform that speeds up the procedures to facilitate the hiring of foreigners in Spain came into force this Monday, so that immigrants who have lived in the country for at least two years can regularize their situation, if they are trained in sectors with job demand .
This modification of the immigration regulations, which the government approved on July 26, makes the processes for granting work authorizations more flexible, and affects both immigrants who are in Spain in an irregular situation and people who can be hired in the country of origin .
To facilitate the incorporation into the labor market of those who are in Spain, the figures for work, social and family roots, as well as family reunification, are updated.
The reform improves the regulations to favor the permanence of foreign students in Spain, since they will be allowed to combine training with work, provided that they do not exceed 30 working hours per week.
The design of the Catalog of Occupations with Difficult Coverage changes to have a more exact image of the needs of the labor market, since now a foreign worker cannot be brought in if there are unemployed people in Spain who can be trained.
Many of the nearly half a million irregular immigrants that some organizations estimate to be in Spain come from Latin America.
But the labor market needs these workers from outside the European Union (EU) to arrive in the country and work there in a “regular, orderly and safe” way, in the words of the Spanish Minister of MigrationJose Luis Escriva.
Last June, foreign workers affiliated with the Spanish Social Security were 2.46 million, the historical maximum since data is available.
At least 34.8% originate from the EU and the rest come from non-EU countries. Among Latin Americans, the most numerous are Colombians (117,376) and Venezuelans (115,194).