Human mobility is a complex reality and a challenge for legal and administrative systems. In Spain, the recent shift from the concept of “rooting for training” to the new “socio-formative rooting” reflects an attempt by lawmakers to adapt immigration regulations to the country’s social and economic context. But does this legal figure truly improve regularization conditions for migrants? Or do contradictions and obstacles remain that limit its effectiveness?
From Training Rooting to Socio-formative Rooting: A Necessary Change
The “arraigo para la formación” (training rooting), introduced in 2022, aimed to offer a path to regularization for undocumented foreign nationals who had been in Spain for at least two years, provided they committed to completing an official vocational training course.
While the idea was positive, in practice the figure presented significant shortcomings:
- Limited access to valid training: Not all regions offered accessible, sufficient, or appropriate courses.
- No work permit during training: This deepened the precariousness of applicants and complicated the transition from a residence permit to a residence-and-work permit.
- Administrative miscoordination: A lack of clarity among immigration offices, autonomous communities, and training centers.
- Heavy bureaucracy and long waiting times: In many regions, inflexible and lengthy procedures became the main barrier to effective labor market integration.
As a result, many migrants could not access employment, and many applications stalled or were denied, leaving people more vulnerable and in a state of renewed irregularity.
To address these shortcomings, the 2024 amendment to the Immigration Regulation introduced socio-formative rooting, which seeks to combine vocational training with an assessment of social integration.
Improvements in Socio-formative Rooting
Key innovations include:
- Work authorization from the moment the permit is granted: Facilitates balancing work and training, or transitioning into the formal job market after training.
- Recognition of social integration: A social integration report is required.
- Training linked to sectors with real labor demand: Priority is given to training in sectors that are actively hiring.
- Stronger institutional collaboration: NGOs, social services, and educational entities support applicants throughout the process.
This approach is not only legal or humanitarian—it is also practical: Spain faces a labor shortage in strategic sectors such as construction, hospitality, transportation, care services, and agriculture. In this context, incorporating trained and regularized migrants becomes a key strategy for social and economic sustainability.
Moreover, training promoted by public employment services in Spain and directed toward occupations listed in shortage occupation catalogues, along with dual vocational training programs, is essential to bridging the gap between labor supply and demand. Socio-formative rooting could help channel migrant integration through training pathways aligned with concrete professional profiles. It also facilitates the transition between training and formal employment or the compatibility of both—representing a significant improvement in the quality of life for migrants who regularize their status under this figure.
A Regulatory Paradox: Between Control and Reality
However, this figure also reveals contradictions within Spain’s migration system. On one hand, the law encourages migrants to enter Spain with work and residence permits obtained from their countries of origin. Yet, most of the procedures defined in the Immigration Law and Regulation require proving the “national employment situation”, using mechanisms that often fail to reflect the full scope of real labor needs.
In practice, this means migration channels from origin are not prioritized nor adequately protected, as restrictive filters ignore many strategic sectors with workforce shortages. These legal and bureaucratic limitations push many to seek irregular and dangerous alternatives, putting their lives at risk.
In this context, socio-formative rooting offers a path for regularizing people already in Spain in an irregular situation—implicitly acknowledging that irregular migration is a structural phenomenon that cannot be ignored.
This contradiction leads to:
- Legal uncertainty: Legal, safe pathways are strict, limited, highly bureaucratic, and disconnected from reality, while irregular entry becomes a necessary door.
- Unintentional encouragement of irregular migration: Because restrictive origin-based procedures push people to resort to irregular channels despite real labor market needs.
- Confusion and challenges for employers and migrants: The exclusion of many professional profiles from the shortage occupation lists makes formal hiring from origin difficult.
Additionally, it is confusing for both migrants and employers that, despite real workforce needs, privileged processes exist only for highly qualified professionals (as defined by Law 14/2013, of September 27, on support for entrepreneurs and their internationalization), while other necessary profiles face slow, opaque, and cumbersome procedures. This is yet another contradiction within the Spanish immigration system, which fails to respond fully to the country’s actual labor demands—particularly in care work, technical, and operational roles.
Toward a More Coherent and Realistic Migration Policy
To address these challenges in a comprehensive way, we propose:
- Opening origin-based residence and work permits to all needed profiles, including technical and operational workers, not just highly qualified professionals.
- Harmonizing criteria and procedures between regular access routes and regularization figures, ensuring consistency and avoiding contradictions or bottlenecks.
- Strengthening public administration with adequate resources, training, and coordination to apply existing rules efficiently.
- Promoting dual vocational training linked to migration regularization, to facilitate sustainable labor integration.
- Establishing agile and equal procedures for all migration pathways. The fast-track process under the Entrepreneurs Law, with short timelines and legal certainty for highly skilled professionals, should be a model applied to all migrant profiles. Maintaining slow, opaque, and complex bureaucracies for other groups results in indirect discrimination based on education level, origin, or social class—contrary to the principles of equality and legal security.
Conclusion
Socio-formative rooting is a step forward from its predecessor, incorporating a more humane approach aligned with social and labor realities. But for it to fulfill its purpose, the gap between legislative intent and practical application must be closed—ensuring that bureaucracy and legal contradictions do not erode legal certainty or the rule of law.
The fast-track model in the Entrepreneurs Law, which offers streamlined, secure procedures for highly qualified professionals, should serve as a blueprint for all migration processes.
Maintaining slow and opaque bureaucratic systems for other profiles implies indirect discrimination based on education, origin, or social class—contradicting constitutional and international legal principles.
It is essential, therefore, to promote procedures that ensure equal treatment, efficiency, and legal certainty for all migrants—regardless of their background—while facilitating their real integration and contribution to society.
From our law firm, we remain committed to supporting migrants and companies through this process, with a firm commitment to fundamental rights and a comprehensive vision of international mobility.
