Immigrants in Spain who lose their jobs would be offered lump sum payments to return home as part of a package of planned reforms aimed at softening the impact on the labour market of the country’s economic downturn.

Celestino Corbacho, the employment and immigration minister, said on Tuesday he hoped the incentive would attract an initial “15 or 20” per cent of the 100,000 foreign workers who currently qualify. The measures are directed mainly at low-skilled workers from Latin America and northern Africa.