We are living in a period of such profound changes that even the most well-informed institutions have great difficulty predicting future developments in our society.
In this Europe without borders in which we want to live, let us pay attention to what is happening in Spain. Perhaps, looking at a different country, but one we know well, reason can overcome the irrational fuss.
According to a report published in a prestigious international newspaper (The WorldOctober 22, 2025), the United Nations predicted, in the year 2000, that Spain would need 12,000,000 immigrants by the year 2050. This year, the Bank of Spain predicts a need, for the same period, of 24,000,000 immigrants.
It should be noted that Spain now has around 49,000,000 inhabitants, of which 7,000,000 (14.3%) are foreigners.
And, with Spain recording annual economic growth of around 2.6%, the role of immigrants in this growth seems decisive.
Thus, in 2022 and 2023 foreigners represented around 80% of new assets; constitute 28% of the hotel and restaurant workforce; account for 20% of the workforce in the construction sector.
The truth is that, with different intensities in each country, a “demographic winter” has set in in Europe, a winter that has long been predictable and anticipated, but which we have all neglected.
If there is a matter that should deserve broad national and European understanding, it is, without a doubt, the demographic issue.
The truth is that Europe has not prepared itself for inevitable diversity, for a plurality of cultures, for a diversity of behaviors, often antagonistic. And, perhaps worse than all of this, it seems to be hampered when it comes to affirming and defending the long march it has made towards defending the primacy of law, the affirmation of human rights and a principle – for us so evident that, sometimes, we forget to affirm it -, that of equality between all human beings.
Of course, Europe can choose to live its “demographic winter” without compensatory measures, as long as it is aware of what this means for its citizens and each person’s quality of life.
We are all faced with new types of issues that we have not reflected on, designed options or defined policies.
Truly, almost all of us tend to react between reason and instinct, between comfortable generalization and uncomfortable individual need, between the stick and compassion, between fiery speech and the typical “brushing it under the carpet”.
Perhaps it would be wiser to act and not forget that this society in which we live has a pact in which the vast majority recognizes itself. That is why I defend that, immediately, in all our schools, and at all levels of education, students are taught our Constitution of the Republic and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Yes, this is the world we want to live in, in the diversity that characterizes it, always, always, always affirming the dignity of the human person as the cornerstone that supports the construction of our common democratic and free home.
Lawyer and manager