As EU tightens borders, Spain legalizes 500,000 migrants
The Take
Al Jazeera
4.7 • 747 Ratings
🗓️ 2 February 2026
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Spain's government will grant legal status to undocumented migrants currently living in the country. The decree, passed after years of grassroots campaigning, will potentially impact about 500,000 migrants and comes in stark contrast to the anti-immigration sentiment in other EU countries. Why has the Spanish government decided to embrace its migrant population now?
In this episode:
- Marcos Bartolomé, Producer, Al Jazeera
Episode credits:
This episode was produced by Melanie Marich, with Phillip Lanos, Spencer Cline, Chloe K. Li, Tuleen Barakat, Alexandra Locke, Marcos Bartolomé, Tamara Khandaker, and our guest host, Kevin Hirten. It was edited by Kylene Kiang and Tamara Khandakher.
The Take production team is Marcos Bartolomé, Sonia Bhagat, Spencer Cline, Sarí el-Khalili, Sarí el-Khalili, Tamara Khandaker, Kylene Kiang, Phillip Lanos, Chloe K. Li, Melanie Marich, Haleema Shah, and Noor Wazwaz. Our editorial interns are Tuleen Barakat and Maya Hamadah. Our guest host is Kevin Hirten.
Our engagement producers are Adam Abou-Gad and Vienna Maglio. Andrew Greiner is lead of audience engagement.
Our sound designer is Alex Roldan. Our video editors are Hisham Abu Salah and Mohannad al-Melhem. Alexandra Locke is The Take’s executive producer. Ney Alvarez is Al Jazeera’s head of audio.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Al Jazeera Podcasts. |
| 0:07.0 | Today, Spain's left turn on immigration. |
| 0:15.0 | Spain's government has announced it will grant legal status to hundreds of thousands of undocumented migrants and asylum seekers. |
| 0:23.9 | As Europe continues to crack down on migrants, Spain is creating a new path to legal status. How and |
| 0:30.5 | why is Spain going against the grain? I'm Kevin Horton, and this is The Take. |
| 0:46.6 | Before we continue with today's show, remember to leave us a comment telling us what you think about this episode and what stories you'd like to see us do next. Or if you're on your favorite podcast app, leave us a review telling us what you think about this episode and what stories you'd like to see us do next. |
| 0:54.5 | Or if you're on your favorite podcast app, leave us a review telling us where you're listening from |
| 0:59.2 | and maybe give us a five-star rating while you're there. It does help the show. |
| 1:06.3 | My name is Marcos Bartolome. I'm an audio producer with the take. You're cutting me in Barcelona today, where I live. |
| 1:13.0 | Well, Marcos, welcome to the take. |
| 1:15.0 | Now, Marcos, our regular listeners will probably recognize your name, |
| 1:18.5 | but you're not only one of our fantastic producers. |
| 1:21.5 | You are also the journalist. |
| 1:23.5 | I always call when there is news about Spain |
| 1:25.6 | and specifically when there's news about European |
| 1:28.1 | immigration. So this is great because now our viewers get to share in this dialogue that we usually |
| 1:32.7 | have behind the scenes. So this is very exciting. Okay. So now to the news. On Tuesday, January 27th, |
| 1:40.5 | Spain's migration minister, Elmasaise, announced that the government would grant legal residency and work permits to hundreds of thousands of undocumented immigrants. |
| 1:51.3 | Today is a historic day for our country. We're reinforcing a migration model based on human rights and integration and coexistence and compatible with economic growth and social cohesion. |
| 2:05.1 | Now, we'll talk about the significance of this in just a moment, but first, just walk us through |
| 2:10.5 | the mechanics of it. How is this going to work going forward? |
| 2:17.1 | I think the workings of it are pretty straightforward. |
... |
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