I don't think this is the first time Spain has done this - I see the logic we need workers to help offset low birth rate so why not legalise them and let them pay into the system...

https://euroweeklynews.com/2024/11/2...esidency-easy/

Presumably it will benefit people like this young man who was in the news recently after he picked up a woman stranded in the street in the flooding in Malaga and carried her to safety.

Mansour receives several job offers after rescuing a woman in Malaga

Well done him, I hope he has a long and happy life in Spain.

So I wonder how long after obtaining residency they are allowed to freely move to other EU countries and where might they go? Had the U.K. still be in the EU I might have hazarded a guess!

The problem I see with this is the opportunity to bring over old family members much more easier.. Another burden on the Health services...

... the residency card Spain just gave me only permits me to travel in the rest of the EU for up to 90 days in a 180 day period.

Correct. No rights to residence, to work, to healthcare, to study etc etc. anywhere else

And to follow up the second part of the post responded to :
There would have been no point heading for there with just a Spanish residency card as it's not a travel document. Passport of country of origin would have been required and full immigration control applied as the person would be a citizen of a 3rd country.

That would have applied until such time as the person acquired Spanish nationality, which on grounds of residence I believe requires 10 years' permanence - presumably under this circumstance being measured from the date of issue of the residence permit - and would probably take some considerable extra time in the processing. How strongly does anyone imagine the desire to drop everything to start another new life, in an unfamiliar country, would be burning after having gone through what it takes to get that far? Having chosen to settle in Spain in the first place?

The UK wasn't in the Schengen area and the passport the traveller carries wouldn't have been an EU passport so it would have meant normal immigration formalities for the traveller, including the airline in Spain stopping the passenger from boarding if the traveller's nationality is from a visa country and the traveller doesn't have a visa.

This is not true. Being an EU national and Schengen member state are two different things. There is Schengen member national and non-EU national like Norwegian, Icelandic and Swiss, though they are signed up to freedom of movement. Currently only Ireland is an EU member state and non-Schengen (plus Bulgaria and Romania because of opposition from certain EU states like Austria). When UK was in EU, it had freedom of movement allowing any Brit to live and work throughout EU, EEA and Switzerland without visa or work permit, regardless of non-Schengen status. All they needed was a passport.

Some south american and latin american countries it is much faster than that.. by half...

Interesting, but not in the least bit surprising, given the economic needs of various countries, both in the EU and beyond, including the UK, and also the US, which is about to find out, if a certain idiot tries to carryout his threats plans - house construction will collapse, crops will rot in the fields, meat processors, especially (they have a very high percentage of immigrant workers performing the physically demanding and unpleasant work, will experience a crisis, as they did during the covid pandemic) and various other labour-intensive manufacturing businesses will cut back or shut down for lack of workers.

Wasn't the Q about a 3rd country national with residency in Spain or elsewhere in the Schengen area who wanted to visit the UK?

The latest estimate for Spain is that they will need 20m immigrants by 2050 to maintain the economy.

250K and even that's a lot. With 20 million the swimming pools would be septic tanks.
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​https://schengen.news/spain-in-need-...n-its-economy/

Some estimates are as high as 25m

https://thediplomatinspain.com/en/20...-work-in-2053/