Elma Saiz viaja a Mauritania para reforzar los programas de migración circular, que en 2023 beneficiaron a empresas y 17.200 trabajadores

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, recalled “the importance of strengthening the relationship with friendly countries such as Mauritania, with whom we are united by deep historical ties of friendship, neighbourhood and cooperation.”
He said this after his visit to Mauritania as part of the trip through Africa in which he accompanies the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez, and in which the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on Circular Migration has been formalized, which will lead to the development of programs for the selection of workers at origin.

They will then visit Senegal and the Gambia, with whom they will also sign a memorandum to promote circular migration and recruitment from the workers’ countries of origin.

What is circular migration

Circular migration is a more available tool for sectors with vacancy coverage difficulties. Other tools are the qualified migration regulations through the Large Companies Unit or the forms available for hiring people who are already in Spain, such as rooting for training.
The circular is also a paradigmatic example of regular, orderly and safe migration that offers a “triple gain”: it allows people to find opportunities abroad without breaking ties with their country of origin; it encourages companies to find the qualified profiles they require; and it is, on a bilateral level, a tool of cooperation and relationship between countries at international level.   

According to the Organic Law, the Ministry of Inclusion may approve, in accordance with the national employment situation, an annual forecast of the occupations and, where appropriate, of the expected numbers of jobs that can be covered through this route of collective management of contracts of origin in a given period, to which only foreign workers who do not reside in Spain will have access. This year, the Order of the Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration regulating the collective management of contracts of origin (GECCO) for 2024 was published in the BOE of December 20.

This recruitment may be carried out to fill positions of a seasonal, seasonal or campaign nature, through circular migration.

Thanks to the reform of the regulation on foreigners, the procedures for circular migration have been greatly simplified. They grant people, through a fixed discontinuous contract, a four-year authorization, which enables them to work a maximum of 9 months a year. This allows them to come every year to work, and return after that period with the guarantees set out in their contract that they will be summoned at the next season or season. Before the reform, these projects had to be processed year by year, and right now it is done once every four, significantly reducing all administrative burdens for companies and for people who migrate.

The General Directorate of Migration Management of the Ministry is responsible for contacting the Embassy of Spain in the country in question, who brings job offers to the attention of local authorities. If the country considers that it can meet that demand, it starts the process of selecting workers.

Figures and results

Spain has been working with circular migration programmes since 2000, the year in which it is regulated in Organic Law 4/2000, of 11 January, on the rights and freedoms of foreigners in Spain and their social integration. 
However, the number of countries of origin with which these programs are developed has been expanding.

In recent years, especially after the reform of the regulation on foreigners of 2022, the issues relating to the determination of the national employment situation, the figures of rooting (rooting for training) were modified, and the regulation is adapted in what impacted the labour reform, this formula has been consolidated. Currently it is a tool to meet the demands of the Spanish labor market, but also for cooperation with the countries of origin, since in many cases it includes the training of workers and the consequent benefit for their communities when they return.

Development of the programs since the reform of the regulation in 2022

Job offers are oriented to the countries with which Spain has signed agreements on the regulation and management of migratory flows. In 2022, agreements were signed with countries such as Morocco, Colombia, Honduras and Ecuador, and 19,100 workers came to Spain. Subsequently, in 2023, it was expanded to three other countries (Senegal, Argentina and Uruguay) and benefited some 17,200 people.

By 2024, it is already Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Peru, Guatemala, Uruguay, Argentina, Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal and the Gambia. There are also States with which we maintain collaboration instruments in this area: Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Mali, Niger, Mexico, El Salvador, Philippines and Paraguay.

In 2024, to date, the figures handled are 20,515 workers.

Minister Saiz has expressed Spain’s commitment to move forward on safe migration routes while prosecuting mafias and crimes of human trafficking. “Circular migration programs are a gain for all parties involved. They are an extraordinary example of our migration policy: we provide the workforce we need in hard-to-reach sectors, we protect workers’ rights, and we also facilitate the return of these people to their countries of origin, with the benefits it can bring in the development of their communities.”

Examples of success and other programs that promote employability

An example of a regular migration program is Wafira, aimed at Moroccan women employed in the collection of soft fruit in Huelva and which includes training in entrepreneurship from which 173 women have already benefited.

The ‘Wafira’ project started in October 2021 and will run until February 2025. It has a total cost of 3.25 million euros, co-financed by the European Union through the Migration Partnership Facility (MPF) mechanism. The design, implementation and periodic monitoring of the project correspond to the governments of Spain and Morocco, which thus strengthen the relations between the two countries on the basis of collaboration in the field of regular migration.

Once the program is finished, the participating workers return to their country, where they receive assistance from both the International Labor Organization (ILO) and Moroccan institutions for the start-up of businesses in sectors such as commerce, restaurants, farms and livestock, among others.

According to various studies by the UN, the European Commission, the IMF, Airef or the Bank of Spain, our country needs around 300,000 migrant workers a year to sustain the welfare state. Circular migration, along with other programs such as the National Refugee Resettlement Plan, which facilitates employment for refugees, are part of the Spanish Government’s migration strategy that puts human rights, regular migration routes, employability and the inclusion of people at the heart.

The comprehensive reform of the Regulation on Foreigners, which was presented at the beginning of August and is in the process of public hearing, will provide an impetus for the simplification of these channels of cooperation and labour relations. For example, in the new regulation, stability is given to the regulations to improve collective procurement in the countries of origin by entrepreneurs. This improvement aims to help favor the legal and orderly channels of legal migration and good selection processes at source.