Spain is poised to offer hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants a fresh start thanks to a partial amnesty, at the same time allowing officials to keep better tabs on its foreigners after the March 11 bombings.
Around 800,000 foreigners, mostly North Africans and Latin Americans, are estimated to be living in Spain without legal residency or work permits.
The ground-breaking new rules, due to be approved by ministers tomorrow, have sprung from the need to make them pay taxes and force employers to make social security payments, Immigration Secretary Ms Consuelo Rumi said last night.
"The Immigration Regulation ... aims to provide some orderliness around the immigration that we have in Spain, to manage the arrival of foreigners to our country ...," she said.
Under the new rules, an immigrant who can show he has a 6-month work contract and is registered at the town hall and social security office would be eligible for residency.
"We ask them to provide a clean criminal record, so that we know that those who are here ... have come to work," Ms Rumi said.
Currently, many of the immigrants are employed without contracts and paid cash in hand in sectors such as construction, with their bosses thus avoiding social security payments.
Foreigners caught without valid residency papers are liable to be deported, and this year more than 100,000 illegals have been sent home, 25 per cent more than last year.
Spain's initiative also tallies with a European Union suggestion that countries try to match migrant numbers to economic growth. Economists say immigration plays an important part in supporting Europe's population and economy.