While loudly criticizing Spain's immigration amnesty policy for "attracting illegal immigrants," Italy and Germany, among other countries, are accused of "double standards" by the media and experts.
According to an article in the British Financial Times on August 4th, last week, Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, along with 21 other EU leaders, signed a joint letter calling for the EU to take action against Spain's amnesty plan, describing it as a ‘pull factor’ and requesting that Spain be excluded from the Schengen Area. However, it turns out that the Berlusconi government itself is implementing a similar, or even larger, legalization policy.
According to data from the Italian Interior Ministry, from 2022 when Meloni took office until 2025, the country has issued more than 590,000 work permits to immigrants through the ‘Flow Decree’. In 2024, the government doubled the annual quota compared to 2021. According to the plan, another nearly 500,000 work permits will be issued between 2026 and 2028, bringing the total number of permits issued during Meloni’s tenure to almost 1.1 million.
Milan International Politics Institute researcher Matteo Viera said bluntly, "The position of the Italian government is undoubtedly hypocritical. What we are doing is essentially the same thing—just using different words." He called this a 'subtle form of amnesty'.
Similarly, Germany and Greece, which signed the criticism letter, were also secretly engaged in similar operations.
From 2022 to 2025, Germany introduced a 18-month stable residence permit for illegal residents with a “tolerant status”. Approximately 90,800 people have been granted this permit.
In 2024, Greece introduced a program to legalize applications from undocumented immigrants. Although the actual number of approvals was only about 25,000, far below the initial target of 300,000, it was still part of a large-scale regularization effort.
Ironically, Portugal and Ireland did not sign this letter of criticism. In recent years, Portugal has granted legal status to 470,000 people.
In fact, Spain is not an exception. Over the past 40 years, Spain has implemented six major immigration amnesties, two of which took place during periods of conservative governments in power. This time, the Sanchez government has simply made this practice more public and prominent. With an estimated 500,000 applicants, there were actually 1.2 million applications, making it a target for attacks.
The International Platform for Unlicensed Immigrants (Picum) pointed out clearly: “Amnesty is a taboo topic for many member countries. People are reluctant to talk about it, but in fact, many countries are doing it. Spain not only does it, but they even take pride in it. This is exactly why they are criticized.”
This kind of “only officials are allowed to set fires” double standard is likely to be unacceptable to everyone, and it also makes the contradictions surrounding immigration policies within the EU even more intense.
