This week provided a story of two starkly totally different Europes.
In Northern Eire, the streets burned with anti-immigrant fury following a violent knife assault in Belfast that was allegedly dedicated by a Sudanese refugee. Inside hours, figures like far-right activist Tommy Robinson and trillionaire Elon Musk used social media to stoke public nervousness, fuelling nights of co-ordinated rioting.
But as that chaos unfolded, only a brief flight away, Spain was actively pursuing a diametrically opposed path.
Authorities there are within the midst of extending an invite to up to half 1,000,000 undocumented migrants to apply for authorized residency.
The sweeping program offers a authorized bridge for them to stay within the nation and stay brazenly, safe employment and pay Spanish taxes for years to come.
This method underscores the opposing responses to the polarizing subject of migration, which has consumed governments throughout continental Europe and the UK.
That divergence offered a exceptional backdrop for Pope Leo’s go to to Spain’s Canary Islands on Thursday and Friday. Essentially the most southerly level in Europe — nearer to Africa than Spain — it is one of many world’s most threatening maritime migration paths, the place greater than 1,300 folks have perished within the final six months, and tens of 1000’s have died in recent times.
“You will have desires that nobody has the correct to despise,” Leo advised the viewers, which included a whole bunch of not too long ago arrived migrants.
He spoke immediately from the Arguineguin dock, the primary port of Gran Canaria. It is notoriously dubbed the “Dock of Disgrace” for the squalid circumstances 1000’s of migrants had to endure in 2020, when arrivals overwhelmed the island’s means to cope.
Throughout a go to to Spain’s Canary Islands, Pope Leo urged compassion for migrants and asylum seekers. His feedback align with the Spanish authorities’s plan to grant authorized residency to half 1,000,000 undocumented migrants — making it an outlier in Europe.
“Your lives have to be protected,” mentioned the U.S.-born Pope, underscoring his intent to make the compassionate therapy of migrants one of many hallmark problems with his papacy.
Spain’s pro-migrant coverage
The Pope’s name might not have a lot resonance in giant components of Europe proper now, however in Spain beneath socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, it has successfully turn out to be authorities coverage.
“I feel that each time that we make legislation shut to actuality, it is a good factor,” mentioned Oriol Nebot, a lawyer working with Catholic NGO Cáritas, which helps migrants with the “regularization” course of.
Many new arrivals already maintain jobs and ship their youngsters to Spanish colleges. Legalizing their standing merely acknowledges current circumstances, Nebot mentioned.
“It is a win for these folks as a result of it is also a measure to dignify [their] state of affairs. But in addition for the federal government, it is a good measure, as a result of these folks now will pay taxes.”
Wendy Solorzano, who’s 42 years outdated and a single mom from Honduras, hopes to qualify. She has a teenage son and a child with cerebral palsy who wants remedy and particular gear that is unavailable to the household of their dwelling nation.
Folks with Central and South American passports don’t want a visa to come to Spain as vacationers. As in Solorzano’s case, they typically arrive legally at airports however stay previous the 90-day interval for guests.
She acknowledges the burden her wants placed on Spanish social providers however says she will make an vital contribution to her new dwelling.
“I am a instructor and I may assist the Spanish folks to get my data, as an [English] instructor,” she mentioned in an interview. “I could be a good particular person right here.”
‘Extraordinary regularization’
Help for the “extraordinary regularization” program is way from common, although.
The opposition Folks’s Get together has accused the Spanish authorities of attempting to stack future elections by making a technology of probably grateful voters. It additionally claims the taxes new residents can pay gained’t come shut to offsetting the price of the federal government providers they’ll devour.
The far-right Vox get together is much more strident, warning the coverage quantities to an invite for extra folks to ignore Spain’s border controls and show up illegally.
In truth, that is the seventh time in 40 years that Spain’s authorities has provided a model of the identical coverage. Whereas the present Sanchez authorities is socialist, events on each the political left and proper have adopted the mass regularization of migrants prior to now.
Economist Miquel Puig advised CBC Information that whereas there could also be moral and compassionate causes to implement such a coverage, economically, the measures have helped Spain turn out to be addicted to low-cost labour.
“What isn’t good is that we’re repeating this many, many occasions, as a result of we’re permitting financial sectors to rely very a lot on low-paid staff,” he mentioned. “And people sectors are rising.”
Puig says this has the impact of suppressing the nation’s common wages and total productiveness, creating an unbalanced economic system.
The U.Okay. perspective
Whereas different European nations have made it simpler for particular teams of migrants — similar to staff within the agricultural sector — to turn out to be authorized residents, within the present political local weather, Spain is a notable outlier for the scope and frequency of its “normalization” efforts.
The ideological outlook in the UK towards migrants is the polar reverse.
Whereas Spain sees financial alternative in letting unlawful migrants turn out to be residents, successive current governments in Britain have taken steps to make the nation as unappealing to migrants as attainable.
The U.Okay. is fast-tracking deportations and within the course of of constructing it even more durable for long-term residents to get hold of everlasting residency.
One of many main variations between Spain, Britain and different European nations is that almost all of these making use of beneath the Spanish legalization scheme are from South or Central America, particularly Peru and Colombia.
They share the Spanish language and Roman Catholic faith, arguably making integration simpler. In 2025, roughly 70 per cent of Spanish asylum seekers got here from Latin America.
Whereas the U.Okay. Dwelling Workplace says closely Muslim nations — together with Pakistan, Eritrea, Iran, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sudan — now make up nearly half of all British asylum claims.
A few of these, similar to migrants from Sudan and different African nations, typically try to cross the English Channel and enter the nation by boat, whereas different claimants arrive by aircraft and overstay their visas.
Of late, anti-Muslim sentiment has been a powerful affect on British immigration coverage. Proper-wing rhetoric has fanned considerations about social cohesion and nervousness over integrating Muslim populations. A 2025 YouGov ballot reported that 41 per cent of the British public explicitly believes Muslim immigrants have a unfavorable influence on the nation.
New EU-wide guidelines to fast-track case processing, observe asylum seekers and pace up deportations had been set to come into impact on Friday, though it is unclear how lots of the 27 member states had been ready to start implementing them.
Whether or not the Pope’s intervention on the migrant subject can change minds — and authorities coverage throughout Europe — is debatable.
However Manuel Manonellas, a professor of worldwide relations at Blanquerna College, Ramon Llull in Barcelona, advised CBC Information that he sees Leo’s intervention as important.
“I feel that it is vital that somebody is reminding us that in all our societies, we’re the results of 2,000 years of migrations,” he mentioned.
“This isn’t going to shut the controversy or completely situation the controversy, but it surely’s offering a extra open-minded and a extra human-based debate, which I feel is vital.”
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