That was 2010, but these memories of my early days in Spain returned last week as Pedro Sánchez’s government announced that it will regularise 500,000 undocumented people. Undocumented migrants are overrepresented in labour markets with little protection in the way of workers’ and human rights, particularly in domestic services, sex work, construction and agriculture. Far from the capital in the Spanish south, undocumented agricultural workers pick the fruit and vegetables delivered to tables across the UK and Europe on a daily basis. In her novel Tierra de la Luz, journalist Lucia Mbomío compiled accounts of the way those undocumented workers struggle to survive in shanties on the edges of the fields. Migrants deserve the dignified lives that are too often denied to them, and this overdue regularisation drive should provide some of that missing dignity.

Source: The Guardian February 05, 2026 21:45 UTC