España, EEUU y Canadá avanzan en su compromiso para impulsar la migración regular y segura desde América Latina

The governments of Spain, the United States and Canada have agreed to deepen their commitment to promote safe, orderly, regular migration based on humanitarian principles from Latin America.

The three countries will use their joint agreement in the region to continue promoting and expanding opportunities for regular labor migration, including “circular” or temporary labor mobility. In this sense, the agreement will make it possible to strengthen the coordination of the different governments to recruit, examine and support in a fair and ethical manner workers eligible for employment abroad and to increase the protection of their rights.

This agreement will also allow the implementation of innovative initiatives, such as the Regional Migration Management Centres, which will strengthen cooperation between the different countries and promote better use of opportunities for the people of Central and South America.

This announcement also reinforces the mutual interest of the three countries in the region, highlighting the common understanding, focus and commitments on the hemisphere of the Los Angeles Declaration on Migration and Protection and the U.S. Call for Action for Central America.

Strengthening Spanish migration policies

This agreement is part of the set of policies aimed at keeping regular, orderly and safe routes for the arrival of refugees and migrants promoted by the Government in recent years open.

In this regard, the last two reforms of the Regulation of the Law on Foreigners have been guided, in 2021 and 2022, which have facilitated the social inclusion of unaccompanied minors and extutelated young people, have updated the figures of rooting and family reunification, have created rooting by training and have improved management by streamlining procedures.

In addition, circular migration figures have been strengthened through a multi-year authorization model that gives stability and certainty to foreign workers and contracting entrepreneurs, and the contracting formulas are adapted to those provided by the more stable labour reform.

Promotion of migration channels linked to employment

As part of its strong ties with Latin America, Spain has signed migration agreements with the Dominican Republic (2001), Ecuador (2001), Colombia (2001), Honduras (2021) and Guatemala (2023), as a result of which several circular migration programs have been implemented. In 2023, some 2,000 seasonal workers will arrive in Spain through these programs. In addition, a program for highly qualified workers has been developed that allowed the arrival in Spain of 3,700 people from Colombia and Central American countries in 2022.

Within the framework of its joint commitment to promote legal migration, Spain will increase in the next three years the number of people from Latin America through channels that respond to the needs of the labor market, strengthening existing operational capacities. With the aim of promoting safe and orderly migration, the current circular migration programme will be extended and a new complementary resettlement route has just been approved by the Council of Ministers, which relies on companies offering employment contracts for people in need of international protection who have skills that fit the labour shortage.