Elma Saiz assures that Spain needs up to 250,000 immigrants a year to maintain the welfare state

MADRID, 7 Mar. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Minister of Inclusion, Social Security and Migration, Elma Saiz, has assured that Spain needs between 200,000 and 250,000 immigrants per year with a net balance until 2050 to "maintain" the country's welfare state.

"The priority continues to be to increase the employability of Spaniards, but also to achieve this volume of foreign workers in a framework of regular, orderly and safe migration," highlighted this Thursday the head of Social Security in the Commission on Inclusion, Social Security and Migrations, in the Senate, where he has appeared to explain the general lines of his department's policy.

Along these lines, Saiz has stressed that, despite record membership levels, close to 21 million members, the Spanish labor market has "thousands of jobs" unfilled in practically all sectors of the economy.

Furthermore, he recalled that immigrant workers account for 10% of Social Security income and only represent 1% of expenditure.

Along these lines, Saiz highlighted that the latest report on aging prepared by the European Commission indicates that the working-age population in Europe without migrants would rise from 200 million people in 2019 to 150 million in 2050, so Europe " "It needs 50 million workers from third countries to stabilize its active population."

Thus, he recalled that the European Commission points out, with these data, that the challenge "is not only for border countries", but rather it is a challenge that affects all European countries "equally".