The Diplomat
The Minister for Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has announced, among the objectives of her portfolio for 2025, the launch of a State Plan for the Voluntary Return of Spaniards abroad and a greater integration of foreigners in our labour market.
The State Plan for the Voluntary Return of Spaniards residing abroad, announced by the minister this past Thursday, will include the creation of Return Offices to advise and help people who want to return to Spain.
“Many of them had to leave our country because the economic situation and the job market offered to them did not respond to their needs. We think that this has changed, our labour market is much better now, and we want to make it easier for them to return, if they so wish,” she declared.
Nearly three million Spaniards are currently registered in the Register of Spaniards Residing Abroad, according to the Spanish Institute of Statistics. Argentina, France, the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany are the countries with the most Spanish residents.
Another of this year’s objectives, he continued, will be the better inclusion of foreigners in the Spanish labour market. “It is a priority issue that we will address through two closely connected lines of work: one, the expansion of the catalogue of occupations that are difficult to fill, a task that I will personally take on by identifying labour sectors objectively and another, the labour mobility strategy,” said Saiz.
Another of the major projects for 2025 is the Intercultural Integration and Coexistence Plan for the full inclusion of migrants in society. “It will be ready in the spring,” he explained. “We are collecting contributions from the autonomous communities and other ministries. We are also working with social entities that are close to the reality of migrants. Migration is a cultural asset, as well as an economic one, that we must know how to take advantage of and care for,” he added.
The minister also explained that another of the objectives for 2025 is, “in the face of disinformation and the mercenary and far-right drift, to continue leading in Europe the commitment to social investment and a positive migration narrative that focuses on opportunities and human rights.”
Within the balance of 2024, Elma Saiz highlighted the reform of the Immigration Regulations “to adapt our regulations to the current reality of the migration phenomenon, in addition to complying with European legislation.”
