00:00Will Spain's regularised migrants be granted the right to vote?
00:08Spain's controversial move to give legal status to around half a million undocumented migrants
00:14has ramped up the debate on immigration across Europe.
00:18But dubious and misleading claims have also surfaced amid the more authentic criticism and analysis.
00:24Take these posts on X, for example, some amassing millions of views and thousands of shares.
00:30Some claim that the newly regularised migrants will be given the right to vote,
00:34while others say that they'll be put on a fast track to citizenship to allow them to vote,
00:39accusing the government of electoral engineering and importing a voting bloc.
00:44The Ministry of the Interior says on its website that only registered Spanish citizens of legal age
00:49can vote in general elections and elections in Spain's autonomous communities.
00:53For the European elections, EU citizens resident in Spain are also allowed to vote.
00:59In local elections, the right to vote is extended to citizens of a group of 13 non-EU countries
01:05with whom Spain has a reciprocal agreement, including Iceland, Norway and the UK,
01:10as long as they fulfil residency requirements.
01:13Spain's move to regularise around 500,000 undocumented migrants does not change that.
01:19The claim that these migrants can gain Spanish citizenship in just two years is also misleading.
01:24Only if you're a citizen of specific countries, such as Portugal or those in Latin America,
01:30can you apply for citizenship after two years of legal residence.
01:34The vast majority of people need to live in Spain for 10 years,
01:38with shorter periods required for refugees or those born in Spain, for example.
01:43As things stand, the decree will provide the migrants concerned with a one-year residence permit
01:48and the right to work anywhere in Spain,
01:50which the government has said will boost the country's economic growth and fill labour shortages.
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