European News 🇪🇺Feb 5

Pedro Sánchez wrote an article titled: "I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants."

Sánchez says undocumented migrants already sustain key parts of society, so his government will regularize up to 500,000 people both out of moral duty and economic need. With aging populations, he argues migrants are essential to keeping economies and public services afloat, and that the real challenges come from poverty and inequality, not migrants themselves.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/04/opinion/spain-migrants-europe.html?unlocked_article_code=1.JlA.o9rA.I2QAxBgLo0E-

Opinion | I’m the Prime Minister of Spain. This Is Why the West Needs Migrants.

In Spain, it is our duty to become the welcoming and tolerant society our ancestors would have hoped to find on the other side of our borders.

The New York Times
Show threadjuniFeb 5
@eunews a third of spains youth lives below the poverty line, about 30% are unemployed. how exactly does it help to add at least half a million (!), mostly unskilled persons, to the mix?
Show threadINNOS 🇭🇺🇪🇺Feb 5

@juni1899 @eunews

https://www.reuters.com/business/spains-quarterly-unemployment-rate-dips-below-10-first-time-18-years-2026-01-27/

Show threadjuniFeb 5

@innos @eunews "Youth unemployment still stubbornly high at 23%"

good job naturalizing 500k ppl roughly within or around that age group. what could possibly go wrong?

Show threadAnton GerasimovFeb 5

@juni1899 how is NOT legalising them (they are not naturalised yet) better. They are already there, many might be already working illegaly.

Limiting workforce supply to tackle unemployment is dumb - it will only harm the economy and lead to positions being closed or relocated

Show threadjuniFeb 5

@Oytis "Limiting workforce supply to tackle unemployment is dumb - it will only harm the economy and lead to positions being closed or relocated"

a very nice frame to say "if you won't do it for lower wages, we just give the jobs to the unskilled workers we just legalised en masse" - once again, big corp got their way, either way.

Show threadAnton Gerasimov

@juni1899 Rather, if you let people in, economy will feel better, and more well-paid positions will be created. You will have more competition for these positions, but otherwise they will not be there at all.

There are countries that manage to only have high cost labour, but those either have oil like Norway or have attracted enormous amount of capital like Switzerland

Feb 5 at 7:58pmtrunks.social
Show threadjuniFeb 6

@Oytis i'm hearing this for 20 years now, immigration was never "worse" than it is right now and yet the economy goes to shit.

maybe you should start to ask the right questions instead of defending the very ppl who rob as all and drain whole continents of it's able bodied populace so your starbucks can get delivered for next to no salary.

Show threadAnton GerasimovFeb 6
@juni1899 I am an immigrant myself, so obviously biased. As to the moral argument of robbing countries and continents - continents are not people. People are people. If people want to uproot their lives and move to another country, they probably have a good reason to. As an immigrant. Sanchez' morality resonates with me more than the idea to confine me to a country which is supposed to have a rightful claim to me.
Show threadjuniFeb 6

@Oytis no one's talking about skilled immigrants from eastern europe who obviously want to blend in and integrate. "you" are not the problem.

a turkish friend of my family came here in the 1980's and is now the most right wing person you can imagine. asking her why, she says that she didn't leave her home country to now have the very ppl around her she left in the first place.

Show threadAnton GerasimovFeb 6
@juni1899 As to economy, we are in the middle of a war in Europe apart from other crises. We need to find a way out of it for sure, we need to find new frontiers for our economy (or economies) together, and thrive together. We will not be able to preserve either our welfare or our democracies with zero-sum thinking.