Global Events & Politics Überthread

Spain has seen a surge in economic growth in recent years. Mostly due to immigration.


Under the decree, undocumented migrants will be eligible for temporary residence permits if they can prove that they arrived in Spain before December 2025 and that they have lived in the country for at least five months. People with criminal records will be excluded; applications will be accepted only between April and June. The residency permits, which allow people to work in Spain, will last one year and will be renewable.

The push to give undocumented migrants a pathway to residency gained momentum during the Covid-19 pandemic, when many migrants continued to work in precarious conditions during Spain’s lockdowns.

Foreign workers have eased Spain’s labor shortage and helped boost economic growth, according to a study by economists at the European Central Bank.

More than 700,000 Spaniards had signed a legislative initiative that began in 2021 — led by migrant groups, and supported by left-wing associations and the Catholic Church — calling for a parliamentary debate on giving undocumented migrants a pathway to residency.

Opposition leaders were quick to criticize the move. Alberto Núñez Feijóo, head of the conservative Popular Party, accused the government of using the measure to distract public attention from a deadly train crash that killed 45 people this month. Vox, a far-right party, said it would challenge the decree before Spain’s Supreme Court, accusing Mr. Sánchez of “accelerating an invasion.”

Spain has carried out eight large-scale campaigns to legalize undocumented people since the mid-1980s, under both conservative and progressive governments, affecting at least one million migrants.
 
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But why is there a better number if they are a net good
I'm going to try to help you understand what a fallacy of composition is.

Suppose I conclude that 1 million grains of sugar makes my morning coffee better than zero grains of sugar. From this it does not follow that 20 million grains of sugar is better than zero.

Cheers.
 
I'm going to try to help you understand what a fallacy of composition is.

Suppose I conclude that 1 million grains of sugar makes my morning coffee better than zero grains of sugar. From this it does not follow that 20 million grains of sugar is better than zero.
Whats odd to me is if 20 are a net positive then why wouldn't 20M be?

Why isn't Spain calling a national emergency to develop land to house these additional people? Build additional hospitals to care for them? Build more schools to teach their kids? Seems like a smart country would do that as it would be the fastest way to a great economy.

Maybe something isn't adding up here and it isn't your accused fallacy.
 
upon further reflection i think your mistake is more a misapplication of reductio ad absurdum than a fallacy of composition

No serious pro-immigration argument claims "any amount is net positive, even 20M overnight." The claim is that moderate, managed inflows (like Spain's recent hundreds of thousands per year) have been a clear net economic plus—driving growth, filling labor gaps in an aging society, and boosting GDP without overwhelming systems.

Pushing to an absurd extreme (sudden 20M = ~40% population spike) doesn't logically follow from that, so rejecting the extreme isn't inconsistent. It's just recognizing scale limits: infrastructure, housing, schools, hospitals, integration capacity aren't infinitely elastic. That's why Spain isn't declaring a "national emergency" to import millions more instantly—it's pacing things sustainably to maximize benefits and minimize strains.

The sugar analogy still holds: 1M grains sweeten coffee; 20M ruin it. Same principle.
 
upon further reflection i think your mistake is more a misapplication of reductio ad absurdum than a fallacy of composition

No serious pro-immigration argument claims "any amount is net positive, even 20M overnight." The claim is that moderate, managed inflows (like Spain's recent hundreds of thousands per year) have been a clear net economic plus—driving growth, filling labor gaps in an aging society, and boosting GDP without overwhelming systems.

Pushing to an absurd extreme (sudden 20M = ~40% population spike) doesn't logically follow from that, so rejecting the extreme isn't inconsistent. It's just recognizing scale limits: infrastructure, housing, schools, hospitals, integration capacity aren't infinitely elastic. That's why Spain isn't declaring a "national emergency" to import millions more instantly—it's pacing things sustainably to maximize benefits and minimize strains.

The sugar analogy still holds: 1M grains sweeten coffee; 20M ruin it. Same principle.
But why does it ruin it? What reasons specifically?
 
reasons are provided in the third paragraph of the post you quoted
I didn’t say it has to be in 90 days. Why aren’t they issuing sovereign debt. Pushing their economic agenda of assured growth to institutional investors? Seems like an easy decision to purchase.

Something doesn’t feel right here…

Must be one assumption we are overlooking or incorrectly valuing.
 
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