Immigration causes in our country political discussions of high temperature and little productive. Spain is the first border in Europe for migrants from Africa and has suffered, often alone, a problem that should offer global solutions. It has not been like that and that has triggered bitter speeches that do nothing to help resolve this serious situation. While thousands of people aspire to move to Europe to seek a better life, countries like ours are aging rapidly, which jeopardizes the viability of retirement pensions and the welfare society that we want to maintain. None of this will be achieved without more taxpayers supporting the system and there are only two ways to achieve it: either the birth rate of nationals increases or the arrival of young labor will have to be facilitated.
In this sense, and as a result of the political tension caused in Spain by talking about immigration, the steps taken in this matter are very cautious. The last one was the approval at the end of 2021 of the new immigration regulation, which facilitates the work permit for migrant minors from the age of 16 and extends it to young people between the ages of 18 and 23 who have been supervised by the administration. The detractors of this necessary measure argued that it would cause a pull effect that has not occurred because the flow of irregular immigration has fallen by 25% in 2022 just after the entry into force of the regulation.
Instead, this new labor regulation has had a double positive effect. The first is that, as we explained today in the Society section, the number of young migrants who have found work has tripled in one year. Therefore, they contribute to Social Security and contribute to sustaining our pension system. The second positive element is that these 6,200 kids who now work legally have ceased to be a burden on society, since previously many lived on official aid or from NGOs and others fell into marginalization, drugs or crime with social damage. what does it mean It was clear that it was bad business to leave these guys in limbo who were already here and we had to support them.
