Immigration Law Spanish-Style : A Study of Spain's Normalizacion of Undocumented Workers

In 2005, Spain undertook what the New York Times called "an immigration experiment worth observing." What this country did was called a regularizacion, a process of legalization of irregular immigrants. This process granted immigration amnesty to undocumented workers in the country who could meet certain statutory requirements. This is the legal process is studied in detail in this article. After discussing the background and history of Spain regarding labor immigration, Professor Lopez analyzes the situation regarding undocumented workers in Spain, the hardships faced by immigrants coming in and the problems created for Spain by the immigrants' arrivals. She then examines the regularizacion itself, along with the policy analysis undertaken by the Spanish government as it decided to implement the amnesty. Lopez further discusses whether the Spanish regularizacion of 2005 comports with the legal and policy norms of the European Union, of which Spain is a member. This analysis tries to understand the criticism that this action was a form of "back door" immigration to the European Union. The article further draws conclusions about immigration policy choices by individual nations and how they affect a network of nations in a globalized world. The article concludes by analyzing whether the regularizacion of 2005 was considered a success, and discusses lessons that can be learned from this regularizacion in Spain