Spain is legalizing half a million immigrants, a very different policy from the U.S.

Mihaela Păun

BARCELONA, Spain — Nariola Romo, 34, and her family immigrated to Spain from Colombia, but that wasn’t their initial plan. Their goal was to travel to the United States, but they couldn’t obtain the two loans they needed to make the trip, so they sought a new life in Europe instead. “Things didn’t work out for us, and we thought it was God’s will that we didn’t get the chance to go there, and, well, here we are,” she said. Today, as she nears obtaining legal status in Spain, she feels grateful