By EUDO CITIZENSHIP collaborator Roxana Barbulescu
This week, the Spanish Government has announced the draft of the procedural document (regulamento) implementing the Foreigners Law approved in December 2009. Among the novelties the document brings is the special treatment of parents in irregular situation with minor children who are Spanish citizens. According to the draft, migrants who fulfill these criteria could obtain a temporary residence permit (for a one year period) and therefore regularize their stay in Spain. Interestingly enough, former Spanish citizens with minor child(ren) also qualify for this permit irrespective of the nationality of the child.
In order to qualify for this exceptional permit, the applicant parent has also to prove that the minor child is under his or her custody and that they live to together. At the end the one year period, their situation would be reconsidered and migrants would be in the position to apply for permit renewal following the standard procedure for ordinary temporary permits.
This provision – also called “arraigo familiar” or “family bond” (article 121 of Title V of the Draft) – is envisaged as part of stipulations regarding residency in Spain in extraordinary circumstances (Title V) which also include the granting of permits in cases of established labour relations (arraigo laboral) and established social relationship (arraigo social). Regularizations via the arraigo option were introduced already in 2000 but the new draft extends them to the cases mentioned above and also to victims of gender violence and human trafficking.
The draft proposed by the government is now under debate with social partners and immigrant associations and is expected to be approved in two months time. Although in Spain the document implementing the law (regulamento) is often more important than the law itself, it is not voted in the parliament but passed via an administrative procedure (decreto real).
Unlike in the US where parents of US citizens retain their irregular status independently of the nationality of their child(ren), the regularization of status for parents of Spanish national minor children seems likely to become a reality in Spain and a novelty in Europe.
It looks as if the Spanish authorities have read the arguments of the more optimistic political scientists and listened to the demands of immigrant associations to open the way to regularization. Yet, it also seems that a probationary residence permit will keep irregular migrants in a limbo for some years, after which they can apply for other (temporary) permits.