Spain employs 25% more temporary migrants and they return to their home country Economy |COUNTRY

Circular migration programs enabled the initial employment of 25,767 workers during 2025.

Spain employs 25% more temporary migrants who return to their home countries

Circular migration programs have allowed 25,767 workers to be employed by 2025.

Programs to hire non-EU migrants to work in seasonal activities in their home countries could recruit 25,767 workers in 2025.These are foreign workers who return to their place of residence after finishing their activity in Spain.Therefore, according to data from the Ministry of Social Security and Immigration, the number of temporary workers known as collective management of the so-called stop (Gecco) increased by 25% compared to last year, when there were around 20,000 seasonal jobs in Spain.

The latest data, released on Monday, show that these programs, born in 2000, have intensified in the last three years.Its work includes the processing and issuing of residence permits for non-EU foreigners who are not located or living in Spain and are recruited from their countries of origin.

This year, up to 17 countries have participated in the program, which allows workers to be recruited to Spain.They are Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Gambia, Guatemala, Honduras, Mauritania, Mauritania, Mexico, Peru, Dominican Republic, Senegal, El Salvador, Uruguay and India).Agriculture is the main sector of activity that receives these temporary workers.

Moroccan workers are the largest, accounting for 81 percent of all employed people.In addition, nine out of ten of these contractors are women, with an average age of 43. The second largest country is Colombia, with 13% of those employed, followed by the citizens of Honduras, with 4%.

In addition, although these workers are distributed in 21 territories throughout Spain, Huelva was the one that took the most seasonal workers (84% of the total), mostly for strawberry picking, which is the sector that has historically used these programs for the picking campaign.

The government decided to continue to promote this type of circular migration and therefore, on December 16, executive officials agreed with France and Morocco to launch the Wafira II program.This is another regional initiative for temporary employers at home, accompanying 3,000 Moroccan workers who will be employed seasonally in Spain and France.The new version of Wafira has been extended to six countries: Morocco, Spain, France, Portugal, Mauritania and Cape Verde.

In addition to maintaining and launching new versions of various programs, Spain has renewed its commitment to the International Organization for Migration (IOM) to continue developing initiatives for labor mobility and social inclusion. Indeed, the Minister of Migration is already preparing a new ministerial decision for GECCO that will define a new recruitment quota basically for the year 2026. The ministry led by Alma Saiz plans to approve it in the coming days.

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